Chinese Emirates Police Cracked Fake Brand Clothing Bags, Involving Billions Of Cases

UAE police come to China to communicate with Shanghai police

Recently, under the command of the Ministry of public security's food and Drug Crime Investigation Bureau, the public security organs of Shanghai and Guangdong worked closely together and jointly dispatched nearly 100 police officers. Through the international law enforcement cooperation mechanism, the Dubai police in the United Arab Emirates joined the strike of a transnational manufacturing and selling of counterfeit goods crime network.

Up to now, 37 suspects have been arrested in China, and more than 7 pieces of international well-known brand clothing bags have been seized. Dubai police in the United Arab Emirates have sold 10 hideout dens in their territory, arrested 20 suspects, and seized more than 2.1 pieces of infringing merchandise, involving an amount of about 1 billion 789 million yuan.

Du Yan, deputy director of the food and Drug Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of public security, said that this is a typical transnational crime of infringing intellectual property rights. The chain of crime is complete and the amount involved is huge. Judging from the effect of the attack, it is also a classic case of public security organs carrying out international law enforcement cooperation in the field of intellectual property protection. The detection of the case fully demonstrates our firm determination to crack down on crimes against intellectual property rights, effectively combating the crime of counterfeiting and selling fake goods, and demonstrates our responsibility to combat transnational intellectual property crimes.

Making fake in Guangzhou, selling fake products in Dubai

The Beijing News reporter learned from the police that the Dubai police in the United Arab Emirates had repeatedly attacked a selling gang in their territory, but they did not destroy the chain of crime from the root. In the course of the attack, Dubai police found that some fake goods might come from China, but could not judge the specific source.

The right person provided a clue. In October 2018, thousands of pieces of fake goods were seized by the Dubai police, and a warehouse was closed. The name, logo and address of "Guangdong small Camel Company" appeared on the customs declaration form. The verification found that the warehouse was registered under the name of a local company whose boss was Khalil.

According to the investigation conducted by the Shanghai police, according to the location of the small Camel Company address, it is found that it is a trading company called Guangzhou Si Lu Road. The logo of the company is just like a small camel on the customs declaration form of small Camel Company. Police estimate that the two companies may be linked.

In the survey, police found that one hundred percent of Hongkong small camel trading company owns Guangzhou Si Lu Road company, while Khalil, the director of Hongkong small Camel Company, is the Registrar of the fake warehouse sold by the United Arab Emirates police. Mansoor, general manager of Hongkong small camel trade Co., Ltd. has been in Guangzhou, China for more than 80 times in recent years.

With the help of the relevant e-commerce platform, through the online and offline investigation, the police mastered some information of Lin Mouhua, director of Guangzhou Si Lu Road trading company.

The Beijing News reporter saw Lin Mouhua at the detention center. She said she was employed by Mansoor, and was responsible for personnel management in the country, helping her boss in foreign countries to buy goods in China and provide services for receiving and shipping. The Beijing News reporter learned that under the management of Lin Mouhua, the company also recruited financial, customer service, warehousing, delivery and other staff in China.

Police investigation found that gang leader Mansoor, Khalil and other organizations in Dubai to sell fake groups, attract physical distribution distributors, organized, hierarchical, large-scale reception of various types of counterfeit LOUIS (VUITTON), HERMES, Chanel (CHANEL) and other brand luggage, shoes, shoes, watches and other commodity orders.

In China, the actual control of Hongkong small camel trade Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Si Lu Road Trading Co., Ltd. hired Lin Mouhua and others to disguise their business in foreign trade, and instructed employees to purchase infringing goods according to the contents of overseas customer orders provided by Mansoor.

Shanghai police kept in custody for a few days, and found that the warehouse of Si Lu Road only hoarding fake goods, and judged that there were special counterfeiting suppliers. After many tracking, we found a fake warehouse in a village in Guangzhou.

In this way, a criminal gang of counterfeit luxury brand luggage and clothing gradually emerged from the control of overseas personnel and the participation of domestic personnel.

The police noted that the gang's counterfeiting and selling process is: some overseas customers purchase genuine products, and the counterfeit goods dens owner Jimo Zhou conducts counterfeit production. The finished goods warehouse director Chen Bao carries on the package, delivers to the overseas personnel Samir opens the logistics company. Logistics companies use fake customs declarations, genuine and false mixed methods to transport fake goods to Dubai by air. The relevant payment and domestic wages are paid by the treasurer in Dubai.

Suspect's fake brand luggage display counter in Dubai

China United Arab Emirates police joint enforcement

But it is not easy to destroy this transnational criminal gang. Shanghai City Public Security Bureau, food and drug environmental crime investigation team leader Dai Li introduced, in order to determine the business scope of Si Lu Road company, they disguised as a customer, went to Si Lu Road Company to contact Lin Mouhua, but the other party did not pick up the raw guest business.

The police found a warehouse of the company, located in a logistics warehouse Park, facing the gate, near the security room. The staff and security guard were very vigilant. When Lin Mouhua and others were alerted that someone might be investigating the company, they all evacuated all the fake goods stored in the warehouse overnight.

Shanghai police learned that the Dubai police had repeatedly cracked down on the distributors of the gang, but because of lack of key evidence, they could not prove the source of supply of the two principal criminals, and it was difficult to arrest them.

In order to combat crime more effectively, the Shanghai police reported to the Ministry of public security's food and Drug Investigation Bureau to give support to international law enforcement cooperation. After discussion, the Ministry of public security's International Cooperation Bureau issued an invitation to the UAE police and held a case coordination meeting in Shanghai in July 10th.

When we introduced to the Dubai police about the picture of the relationship between the gang members, we found that the police behind the lock of the domestic police were the principal criminals in the UAE's long-standing foreign sale gang.

"At this time, we were relieved that previous efforts were not in vain. Next, the two countries discussed in detail how to take joint action and synchronize the cross-border criminal gangs. The talks were very pragmatic and reached consensus on action plans, time, and the repatriation of suspects." Sui Shangrong, deputy director of the Bureau of food and drug crime investigation of the Ministry of public security, discussed the scene of the case coordination committee.

After transnational joint action, the Ministry of public security's food and drug crime investigation directing Shanghai and Guangdong police arrested 37 suspects of Lin's first HUAWEI, destroyed 1 counterfeit dens and hoarded 5 dens, seized 24 pieces of counterfeit molds, counterfeit luxury brands, and 7 thousand pieces of clothing. Dubai police cracked down on 10 dens, arrested 20 suspects and seized more than 21000 counterfeit registered trademarks. Some of these infringing goods originated from domestic counterfeiting dens.

Dai Li said that there was a huge profit margin between the domestic and foreign criminal groups in this case. The domestic gangs purchased fake goods through fake suppliers or counterfeiting dens. The unit price ranged from tens to thousands of yuan, and sold abroad after the profit of 3%-5% increased. There is even a situation where the freight charges exceed the value of the goods. However, a large reason why overseas criminal gangs prefer to pay high cross border freight charges and send them to overseas is that these fake goods can bring huge profits abroad. Some of the fake goods are placed in the hardcover villa in a false fashion, and are sold in the name of discount sales, according to the 70% to 80% of the genuine price.

Salim, director of anti fraud and piracy division of Dubai police headquarters, said in an interview: "during the joint law enforcement cooperation with Chinese police, we deeply realized that the Chinese police are very good partners. We exchange information and intelligence to combat regional and international crime. Specifically, to the destruction of a transnational network of counterfeiting and selling counterfeit brands, we have cooperated with Chinese police, seized a large number of fake brand clothing bags, found more than one people engaged in counterfeiting and selling, and destroyed many dens in China and Afghanistan. We also set up a Sino Arab joint action team to bring all the criminals involved to justice.

Salim highly commented on the efforts of the Chinese police: "we launched a joint strike action at the first time to arrest criminals. This fully demonstrates the strong determination of Chinese police to crack down on counterfeiting and selling, and attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as the desire to further develop bilateral cooperation."

Guangzhou and Dubai simultaneously collect networks

The transnational criminal gangs are different from the ordinary selling and selling groups, and more than 200 overseas distributors have been exposed to the whole Middle East region. The establishment of a legitimate company in the territory has been covering up illegal activities outside the country. The freight and logistics companies both inside and outside the country are designated by overseas bosses for the timely delivery of the fake freight to overseas, paying the freight more than ordinary goods. Based on these circumstances, the case is harder to strike.

Before the case was shut down, the police of the United Arab Emirates made repeated attacks on foreign gangs, raising the vigilance and increasing awareness of criminal suspects and strengthening the awareness of anti investigation. The police found that the frequent entry of overseas personnel no longer entered the country; the registration and registration of industrial and commercial registration of domestic companies began to change and write off; the storage of fake dens was transferred and stopped shipping abroad; the factories suddenly stopped working normally.

Du Yan, deputy director of the food and Drug Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of public security, said that the evidence from the case itself is enough to support the crackdown on criminal gangs in China. If we delay the collection time, we will bring new workload and risk to the investigation and control work. However, in order to launch a full chain strike against this transnational criminal group, we have delayed the time to net the network, and have voluntarily informed the UAE police, sharing intelligence, clues and evidence information with the al police, and jointly agreed on the work plan of joint investigation and synchronous network collection.

In the cooperation with Dubai police, a major difficulty lies in the difficulty of synchronizing cross-border networks. China and Dubai have 4 hours of time difference. In order to overcome this problem, China and Arab police have made many communication.

Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, food and drug environmental crime investigation team leader Yu Yu told the Beijing News reporters the process of collecting nets: "choose Beijing time ten hours to close the net." At that time, it was the staff working time of the company in Dubai. After catching the target, it was just seven or eight a.m. in the morning. Selecting the time to synchronize the network can ensure that the police can cut off the external links within the domestic target and ensure that the members of the overseas gang will not be divorced from the police line of sight and transfer the dens and counterfeits. On the other hand, domestic fake dens usually start in the evening. Early in the night, police broke through the counterfeit dens in a city village in Guangzhou and carried out a secret arrest against several principal criminals. After the arrest, the first time the direct evidence of the main criminals' mobile phone and computer dealings with the overseas selling and selling bands was obtained. After obtaining a lot of key evidence, the police immediately applied for an arrest warrant and arrested the gang principal offender to ensure the overall attack on the whole chain of crime.

Ms. Louis Weedon, director of criminal protection of intellectual property rights in Greater China, said that fake products were more concealed at present: "now they do enough quantity to transfer from factories to warehouses, or the boss completely retire behind the scenes and entrust factories to produce. One or two singles are useless, and the whole chain must be hit." Ms. Tan said that the Middle East is the main distributing center for LV fakes.

As a right person, Ms. Tan said that she had been involved in the 15 years of brand counterfeiting, and for the first time participated in such a large-scale international cooperation against counterfeiting. In the anti fake operation, Ms. Tan was invited to participate in the case study, which provided a bridge for Sino Arab police communication. Ms. Tan believes that the Chinese police are very determined to fight against counterfeiting, and there are also innovations and breakthroughs in handling the case.

Du Yan said that in early 2019, the Ministry of public security of China integrated the duties of several business bureaus, set up a food and Drug Investigation Bureau, transferred all functions of the crime of infringing intellectual property rights and counterfeit and shoddy products to the new Department, further intensified the investigation and combating functions, and "zero tolerance" severely cracked down on infringement and counterfeiting crime, and served the national innovation and development strategy.

In July 25th this year, the Ministry of public security deployed the national public security organs to carry out the "Kunlun" action, focusing on cracking down on the food and drug ring crimes. Cracking down on infringement of intellectual property rights and counterfeiting and shoddy crimes is one of the "Kunlun 3" operations. In the 3 month period, the "Kunlun 3" operation cracked 2668 cases, destroyed 2043 counterfeit dens, and captured 6197 suspects, with a value of about RMB 6 billion 980 million yuan.