Police in China and the United Arab Emirates have detained dozens of suspects for their alleged involvement in an international criminal gang that made and sold an enormous volume of counterfeit luxury goods in the Middle East, Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper reported Sunday.
In a joint operation, police in Dubai, Shanghai, and Guangdong province detained 57 suspects in July, seizing more than 28,000 counterfeit handbags and items of clothing, according to the report, which cited a notice from China’s Ministry of Public Security. The seized goods were worth an estimated 1.8 billion yuan ($256 million) and included fake products resembling luxury brands such as Chanel, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton.
The main suspects were based in Dubai and operated two companies that contracted Chinese factories to make the products and then sold them to distributors in several Middle Eastern countries, according to the report.
Chinese authorities last year vowed to strengthen protections on intellectual property in a bid to rectify the country’s reputation for counterfeit goods. The Ministry of Public Security launched a special operation against such products in July, leading to the arrest of 6,197 suspects in just three months. Also last year, police in the eastern Anhui province destroyed 500,000 pairs of fake Converse and Vans sneakers worth 600 million yuan that were slated to be sold in the Middle East.
(Image: Shanghai police)
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