California Apparel News

Suspicious paperwork led customs inspectors to pry open a 40-foot container at the Port of Los Angeles, revealing a stash of fake True Religion jeans, North Face jackets and Gucci T-shirts with a retail value of more than $3.6 million.

The container, from China, was filled with 966 cartons of counterfeit clothing with 70 percent of the container filled with True Religion knockoffs.

The Dec. 1 discovery led investigators days later to a warehouse in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., where Homeland Security officials on Dec. 13 found 246 cartons of fake Nike shoes with a retail value of $430,000.

No one has been charged in the counterfeit schemes, said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations. "It's an ongoing investigation, but we are confident there will be some arrests," Arnold said.

Government officials on Dec. 22 displayed the treasure trove of fake goods at a federal building in Long Beach, Calif., to highlight a six-week global enforcement effort called "Operation Holiday Hoax."

The operation, which ran from Nov. 1 to Dec. 16, resulted in the seizure of more than $80 million worth of counterfeit goods, government officials said. The worldwide investigation targeted stores, flea markets and swap meets in 66 U.S. cities, 55 Mexican cities and in Seoul, South Korea.

In addition, customs officials at various U.S. ports made a number of seizures of counterfeit toys, cell phones and chargers, handbags, DVDs, perfume, wallets, computer software, and more apparel. Nationwide, the brands included Burberry, Coach, Fendi, Jimmy Choo, the National Football League, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Rolex and Ugg.

Immigration and customs officials have stepped up their scrutiny of goods in recent years, Arnold said. "Over the last three years, every year seizures have gone up. I can't say if it is because there is more counterfeiting or because of our increased focus," he noted. "But we have increased our focus. One of the reasons is because this hurts the economy. It hurts workers and the companies that are producing the goods."

Investigators said they have been relying on tips, suspicious paperwork and other investigative tools to ferret out counterfeiters. In fiscal 2010, there were 19,959 seizures of counterfeit goods, compared with 14,841 seizures the year before, said Virginia Kice, an ICE spokesperson.

Inconsistencies in customs documents led officials to examine the 40-foot container at the Port of Los Angeles, Arnold said. The paperwork described the container's contents as women's cotton trousers, T-shirts and skirts.
The True Religion blue jeans inside the container had labels describing them as "Made in the USA/Designed in the USA."


True Religion blue jeans have been a favorite target of counterfeiters. Last year, customs officials found thousands of counterfeit blue jeans shipped in a 40-foot container to the Port of Los Angeles from China. The 21,024 pairs of fakes had a retail value of $6.2 million. Normally, True Religion jeans retail for $175 to $425.

Earlier in December, the Los Angeles city attorney's office displayed a haul of fake goods sold on Santee Alley in the Los Angeles Fashion District. Some of those items included counterfeit True Religion blue jeans and Louis Vuitton handbags.

Deborah Greaves, an attorney for True Religion, said finding such a large cache of fake blue jeans is always rewarding because so much counterfeit activity has gone to Internet shopping websites. "It is easier to keep the product in China, sell it on the Web and then ship one product at a time, avoiding high-risk seizures," she said.-Deborah Belgum