The New York City police force started
2009 off with a big message to Canal Street vendors who peddle counterfeit
“designer” goods—not in this town. Beginning in early December,
city inspectors and police officers made a series of raids, the largest
of which was on 424 Broadway, a mini-mall housing thousands of counterfeit
handbags and other merchandise valuing over $1 million dollars.
Officers not only uncovered sacks of
knockoff goods, but terrible working conditions that endanger the lives
of those who work in the building making and selling counterfeit goods.
“It’s a firetrap,” said Edward
Mungin, an inspector with the Department of Buildings assigned to the
enforcement unit. “Space heaters, hanging lights, everything about
this location is illegal.”
The raid was just the latest in a concerted
effort to close down counterfeit operations in what has become known
as the “counterfeit triangle,” in New York City—the blocks between
Walker, Canal, and Center Streets. Last year, the city made 2,729 arrests
for trademark counterfeiting in a bid to rid New York of poorly made—and
illegal—goods.
New York isn’t the only city taking
note of the sharp rise in counterfeiting in the last decade—Los Angeles
similarly raided multiple downtown LA locations throughout the holiday
season in what they dubbed Operation Clean Sweep. The program yielded
28 arrests, 200,000 counterfeit apparel items worth $2.7 million dollars.
Los Angeles businesses lose $5.2 billion annually to the counterfeit
market, according to the Los Angeles Anti-Piracy Task Force.
While counterfeiting has grown recently—encompassing
everything from faulty car parts to fake chocolate—local governments
have stepped up with special task forces created specifically to fight
fakes.
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