Winchester Police Announce 'Major' Counterfeiting Arrest

From the Winchester Police Department:

Police Chief Kenneth C. Albertelli announces that the Winchester Police Department yesterday arrested an alleged product counterfeiter and seized a large quantity of fake products from his home.

As a result of a long, diligent investigation, which involved federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security Investigations agents, Anthony Christopher Marino, 54, of Winchester, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of Counterfeit Trademark Distribution and Larceny by a Single Scheme (G.L. C.266, s.30).

Winchester Police, working with their federal counterparts, spent several months investigating reports that a local man had registered several Internet domain names and was selling counterfeit vaporizers under the brand name “Ploom.”

Vaporizers are electronic devices used to extract the active ingredients from plant materials, like tobacco and marijuana, and heat them up with a heating element instead of a flame. This eliminates smoke and secondhand smoke. Ploom is a California-based company, established in 2006, that produces a variety of these products.

After tracking Marino’s alleged activities, including tracking shipments and customers, and making controlled buys of the counterfeit products, Winchester police served a search warrant on Marino’s home on Belknap Terrace and obtained about 300 counterfeit vaporizers, which Marino was allegedly selling for about $200 a piece online.

“This is a fine example of gumshoe police work, seeking out fraudulent activity in our community and rooting it out,” Chief Albertelli said. “Our detectives, working with their federal counterparts, successfully closed this long-term case and brought an alleged counterfeiter to justice.”

Additional charges may be forthcoming.

Marino was released on bail.