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NEW YORK - Police swooped down on New York's "counterfeit triangle" on Tuesday, seizing more than US$1 million ($1.24 million) in bogus designer merchandise, shutting down more than 30 stores and warning shoppers not to support counterfeiters.
Fake designer handbags, watches and clothing - bearing phony labels from designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, Rolex, Coach, Dior and Prada - were gathered up in the dawn raids on along Canal Street in New York's Chinatown.
The area is one of New York's "most notorious knock-off" hubs, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference to announce the raids and warn of a crackdown on landlords and sellers of fake goods.
No arrests were made and shoppers were not targeted in Tuesday's sweep of 32 stores. But Bloomberg said tourists and shoppers who flocked to the area known as "the counterfeit triangle" were guilty of helping prop up organized crime and were "stealing someone else's property."
"You may get something for nothing but it is against the law," he said. "When they realize that this city takes it seriously, hopefully they will not buy something that they have every reason to think is a rip-off."
Fake designer bags, jewellery and clothing are part of a US$500 billion global trade in counterfeit goods and US authorities say some of that money funds terrorism.
In New York the trade was worth US$80 billion and costs the city US$1 billion a year in lost sales tax revenue.
"Nobody is being tricked here," New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, noting tour buses stopped at the stores.
"People are paying cheap prices for cheap goods and that is part of the problem. In certain circles it has become hip to buy knock-off goods."
After using municipal laws to shut down the businesses, the city also filed a civil lawsuit to fine the stores' landlords and demand legitimate businesses be put in place.
Regardless of fake goods crackdowns, some shoppers, such as Dutch tourist Dirk van der Lance, who did not buy anything, doubted whether operations selling fake goods will be deterred.
"They will probably just move down the street," he said.
- REUTERS
