If you've ever come back from the Big City squealing over that Gucci purse you bought from the nice Middle Eastern man on Fifth Avenue, be warned: You very likely just got ripped off. Just ask the feds:
Federal authorities in New York announced on Wednesday the largest-ever seizure of counterfeit goods, consisting of handbags, shoes and other luxury merchandise valued at more than $1 billion.
Two people were charged with trafficking the knock-offs from a New York City storage unit and other locations from January through October, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
This is no small-time trunk scheme or out-of-a-suitcase gambit. This is a big operation:
One sweep "resulted in the seizure of over 83,000 counterfeit items with a total estimated [manufacturer's suggested retail price] of over $502 million," while another "resulted in the seizure of over 50,000 counterfeit items with a total estimated MSRP of over $237 million."
Big money, no doubt.
The feds said that Adama Sow, 38, of Queens, New York, and Abdulai Jalloh, 48, of New York, New York, "are each charged with trafficking in counterfeit goods, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison."
The defendants "used a Manhattan storage facility as a distribution center for massive amounts of knock-off designer goods," a U.S. attorney said.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
