CHICAGO — Dozens of counterfeit designer products with a suggested retail price of over $1 million were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at O’Hare’s International Mail Branch in Chicago.
According to CBP, officers seized the shipment, which contained 67 pieces of counterfeit designer watches, bracelets, handbags and scarves as it was headed to a residence in Oklahoma on Monday night.
CBP says the shipments contained 53 watches with Rolex, Gucci, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton logos, nine bracelets with Rolex logos, three Louis Vuitton handbags and two Gucci scarves, all of which were deemed to be counterfeit by trade experts with CBP Centers of Excellence and Expertise.
According to the CBP trade experts, had the products been real, the MSRP would have been over $1.08 million.
CBP says the counterfeit products were poorly packaged upon arrival at the mail branch and officers seized the counterfeit products for infringing on the designer’s protected trademarks.
“Counterfeit goods are poor quality products that cost U.S. businesses billions of dollars a year while robbing our country of jobs and tax revenues,” LaFonda Sutton-Burke, Director of Field Operations for the CBP Chicago Field Office, said. “CBP officers throughout my field office remain committed to stopping counterfeit smuggling, taking profits from organized crime, and helping protect our communities from potentially hazardous knockoffs.”
According to CBP, over 24.5 million shipments with intellectual property rights violations were seized by officers in 2022.
