Fake goods worth $1.3b seized in Guangdong

Police across Guangdong province have seized fake goods worth more than 8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) after investigating 3,361 cases from January to November.

Huang Shouying, director of the economic crime investigation bureau under the Guangdong Department of Public Security, said 5,460 suspects have been detained.

“Police have destroyed 2,532 secret counterfeit production locations throughout the province,” Huang said at a news conference in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, on Thursday.

Most of these production bases were in Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Foshan, Yangjiang and Dongguan, Huang said.

In addition to food and medicines, the goods seized included kitchen knives, electrical appliances, computer parts, clothing, shoes, shampoo, cosmetics, watches, car parts, bags and toys, Huang said.

In the latest operation, police detained 47 suspects after swooping on 13 bases producing fake kitchen knives in Yangjiang on Nov 25. Eighteen counterfeiting warehouses and 56 sales centers were also investigated. The fake goods seized are estimated to worth more than 110 million yuan.

On Sept 30, police in Foshan seized more than 10 million yuan worth of fake fat-reducing medicines and anti-inflammatory and contraceptive pills when they destroyed a secret medicine production base in the city’s Lishui township. Six suspects were detained.