The Department of Justice has seized counterfeit goods worth approximately $1.3 billion and charged two people with trafficking in fake merchandise.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement Wednesday that they seized approximately 219,000 counterfeit bags, clothes, shoes, and other luxury goods worth about $1.3 billion. Police arrested Adam Sow,38, and Abdulai Jolloh,48, and charged them with trafficking in counterfeit goods. In their statement, the DOJ said the men ran their counterfeit trafficking operations from a storage facility in Manhattan from January to October as reported by The Hill.
Investigators also alleged that Jolloh ran another storage facility where he trafficked more goods. “As alleged, the defendants used a Manhattan storage facility as a distribution center for massive amounts of knock-off designer goods. The seizures announced today consist of merchandise with over a billion dollars in estimated retail value, the largest-ever seizure of counterfeit goods in U.S. history,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
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New York City has a strong commitment to protecting consumers from the dangers of counterfeit goods. The city’s laws are designed to deter the production, sale, and distribution of counterfeit products, and to provide consumers with the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions. One of the key provisions of New York City’s counterfeit laws is the prohibition on the sale of counterfeit goods. This means that it is illegal to sell any product that is marked with a counterfeit trademark or that is designed to resemble a genuine product. The city also has laws that make it illegal to manufacture, distribute, or possess counterfeit goods.
