Police Blotter
ABC Action News in Philadelphia reported today that Wilmington, Delaware police had arrested two men on charges of distributing or selling counterfeit goods and seized CDs, clothing, shoes and other items worth more than $120,000 from three stores in downtown Wilmington, Crazy Discount, Discount Plus and Shivam's Paradise.
The International Herald Tribune reports today that Hong Kong customs officials seized counterfeit goods and pirated DVDs worth US$1.3 million in operation "Fire Tornado," a month long crackdown on retail outlets that sold handbags and other counterfeit goods. Most were located in shopping areas popular with tourists.
Police in Ho Chi Minh City (HCM) seized more than 20,000 pirated CDs and DVDs, including hundreds of DVDs of the film Rocky Balboa, from a house in HCM City’s District 7, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Police said the seized fakes belonged to a counrtefeiting ring that had produced and sold pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs in HCM City for years.
KPRC Local 2 in Humble, Texas reports that two sisters-in-law working for local nail salons were arrested after ICE agents and local police seized more than 300 fake purses and other counterfeit products valued at more than $160,000 from Hanna Nail and Vanna's Nails, the Humble-area nail salons that employed them. The women, who sold counterfeits to undercover police, did not attempt to pass them off as genuine items. The women have been charged with felony trademark counterfeiting. Video footage of the seizure is available on the KPRC website.
New York State Police arrested a Tonawanda, NY resident, David A. Cook, after finding 1,500 or so counterfeit DVDs at his booth at Antique World in Clarence. Cook was selling each movie for $5. An additional 6,000 movies were seized from Cook's home along with untaxed cigarettes, according to the Tonawanda News. The investigation was conducted by local state police investigators working with state investigators from the Special Investigations Unit in Buffalo. Cook was charged Monday with first-degree manufacture or sale of unauthorized recording of a performance, first-degree failure to disclose origin of a recording, second-degree trademark counterfeiting, possession of untaxed cigarettes and attempt to evade/defeat New York State Tobacco Products Tax.