Counterfeit goods operation raided

A MASSIVE operation which produced high quality fake goods mainly sold in the Costa del Sol has been broken up by the National Police who have arrested 55 people.

The items were so well made and so difficult to distinguish from the originals that these goods sold at prices from €100 to €400 and the whole network was first reported when an international handbag manufacturer appointed a private detective to try to identify the source of the fake items which were flooding the Costa del Sol.

Once he had compiled his report, information was passed to the National Police and they identified the fact that the goods were being made in a workshop in Ubrique in Cadiz Province and were being shipped to a Marbella warehouse where they were then sold in shops and markets in Estepona, Marbella and Fuengirola.

The majority of people involved in the production and wholesale distribution of these high quality counterfeit goods were of Maghreb origin and they in turn supplied the goods to countrymen in the Costa del Sol.

A number of properties and market stalls were raided and a secondary warehouse was discovered in Torremolinos and apart from the 55 people arrested, officers seized 4,865 leather products, 9,800 garments, 544 watches and 138 belts as well as false dies to allow for the leather goods in particular to be branded as if real.