$500K In Counterfeit Designer Goods Seized At Dulles Airport In VA

DULLES, VA — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Washington Dulles International Airport recently completed a seizure of 298 counterfeit consumer items that would've been worth more than $500,000 if they were authentic, according to a release.

On April 10, CBP officers directed a Laurel, Maryland woman who had just arrived on a flight from South Korea to a secondary baggage inspection. The woman told officials she'd just returned from Thailand with six pieces of luggage, declaring both verbally and in writing that she had not purchased any merchandise during her trip.

When airline employees brought the woman's baggage to the inspection area, CBP discovered that 12 bags were tagged to the traveler. Opening two bags, officers found that they contained newly purchased and possibly counterfeit merchandise.

After inspecting all 12 bags, CBP officers detained 298 pieces of potentially counterfeit clothing, scarves, hats, shoes, and jewelry with the designer brand names of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry, Prada, Gianni Versace and others. The items were inventoried and then sent to the CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise to be evaluated and appraised.

CBP import specialists confirmed that the items were counterfeit and would have a manufacture's suggested retail price of $509,431, if they were authentic. The shipment was seized on Tuesday. Officers did not release the traveler's name because she hasn't been criminally charged.

“Customs and Border Protection officers sometimes encounter counterfeit consumer goods in passenger baggage, but rarely at this brazen volume,” said Daniel Escobedo, CBP’s area port director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C., in a release. “The international trade in counterfeit consumer goods is illegal. It steals revenues from trademark holders, steals tax revenues from the government, funds transnational criminal organizations, and the unregulated products potentially threaten the health and safety of American consumers.”