The Tennessee Highway Patrol confirms to TRVN that that local troopers assisted members of Tennessee Highway Patrol’s CID division this morning at a raid in Pulaski that netted thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit named brand items like Nike, Yeti Under Amour and Louis Vuitton.
- The THP say the items seized were valued at approximately $322,000
- The raid was reported conducted at the Christmas Bazzar at a school in Pulaski.
- Sources say the raid reportedly focused on a business by the name of Scout & Company Design.
- Two probable cause warrants were served according to the THP.
- No arrest have been made and the investigation remains open.
Annual trade in fake products was worth $461 billion in 2013, around 2.5 per cent of total global trade, according to Piotr Stryszowski, an economist with the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The money goes to organized crime, and helps fund terrorism and the trafficking of drugs, people, sex and wildlife, as well as the lavish lifestyles of its kingpins.
Consumers may see fakes as “fun” and feel clever to buy sunglasses or sneakers that look like the real thing but cost a fraction of the price.
The reality, however, is anything but fun for the workers, many of them children, who toil in appalling, often slave-like conditions in secret factories making fake products for gang bosses who, Stryszowski says, “have no ethics and no respect for the law.”
Source: Tennessee River Valley News
