Cosmetics, clothing, accessories, and sporting goods worth several million euros – German customs authorities have currently reported various remarkable successes in the fight against counterfeiting. The focus of the current actions was on illegal consignments transported by road.
At the end of June, officers from the Braunschweig main customs office intercepted a cargo van loaded with boxes of counterfeit perfume on the highway A2 in Lower Saxony. Customs investigators seized more than 600 counterfeit perfume bottles, which imitated products of 23 brands. The fakes were transported in a Polish cargo van, which ostensibly carried courier shipments to Belgium. During the inspection, customs officers became suspicious as some of the shipments were addressed to destinations in the United Kingdom, contrary to the driver’s initial statements. According to manufacturers, the goods could have yielded about 40.000 euros if they had been sold. Now, criminal tax investigations have been initiated against the courier.
Just a few weeks earlier, customs officers at the Dresden customs office were able to seize counterfeit clothing worth around two million euros. At the beginning of June, the investigators discovered the counterfeits during customs clearance on a truck that was on its way from Turkey to Poland. After unloading the truck with the help of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the officers seized around 43.000 T-shirts, 6.000 pairs of pants, and 376 pairs of sports shoes.
Also at the beginning of June, the main customs office in Nuremberg reported a success resulting in almost 2.300 counterfeit bags of various luxury brands being confiscated. The fakes, which had been destined for a company in Germany, had already been seized at the beginning of April in a truck coming from Turkey.
Finally, in Thuringia, on the German highway A9, officers of the Erfurt main customs office prevented trafficking of counterfeit clothing in June. During an inspection of an Albanian bus, the investigators discovered a suspicious piece of luggage, which did not appear to belong to any of the few passengers. It contained more than 100 fake sports suits, T-shirts, soccer jerseys, and pants of poor quality, which were allegedly to be delivered to an consignee in Berlin. The driver of the bus now faces further investigations.
Back in spring, several impressive strikes against counterfeiting trade by police and customs officials had already resulted in seizures worth several millions.
