Hong Kong customs seizes HK$15 million in bogus items in record online sale case
Customs says syndicate believed to have sold bogus health supplements online, in addition to allegedly handling other counterfeit items
Hong Kong customs officers have uncovered the department’s largest case yet involving counterfeit goods sold online, arresting seven people and seizing HK$15 million (US$1.9 million) worth of items, including bogus medicines and fake Louis Vuitton and Hermes handbags.
Hong Yan, a senior inspector with the Customs and Excise Department’s intellectual property general investigation unit, said on Friday officers arrested four men and three women on Tuesday last week at a storage unit in Yuen Long after beginning investigations in June.
“Customs officers have discovered that the company receiving funds from parcels [of fakes] ordered from the online platform could be traced to a storage unit in Yuen Long,” he said.
The department said the syndicate was believed to have operated on social media and claimed to be selling goods under a local brand of Chinese medicine health supplements but had also allegedly possessed other types of counterfeit items.
Officers raided the storage unit inside the factory building in Yuen Long and another unit on the premises on September 9, discovering 7,400 counterfeit items.
The seized items included bogus health supplements, counterfeit Louis Vuitton and Hermes handbags, clothing, watches and other accessories, and fake medicines labelled as Part 1 poisons.