French Customs seize €2m worth of fakes in Paris, Lyon express centres

French Customs have intercepted counterfeit goods valued at around €2 million at express operator sorting centres in the Paris and Lyon regions.
 

A total of 16,450 individual items were seized – mainly T-shirts, swimming shorts and bath towels which were fakes of leading brands. They were bound for unregulated markets in Greater Paris.
 
In co-ordinated fashion, teams of officers carried out inspections at the sorting centres following information gathered on a crime ring specialising in shipping fake goods by express freight.
 
In keeping with their established media policy, the names of the express companies have not been disclosed by the Douanes who went to underline that the crime ring "was particularly well structured and organised, not hesitating to use express freight in order to get round Customs controls despite the cost of this mode of transport."
 
The on-going judicial investigation is expected to identify where the fake goods had been shipped from and their place of origin.
 
In 2014, French Customs seized 8.8 million counterfeit items, including 1.5 million items concealed in express and postal freight shipments.
 
Combating cybercrime constitutes one of the Douanes' priorities for action.  Inspections of express and postal freight traffic have been stepped up in order to deal with the development of fraudulent practices in this sector, a reflection of the growth in internet sales.
 
Last year, inspections of express and postal freight resulted in some 22,156 offences being recorded of which 9,560 concerned counterfeiting.