Cops netted more than $10 million in “high-end” counterfeit goods Monday in a crackdown on illegal street vendors in Lower Manhattan, police officials said.
The NYPD’s sweep of knock-off purses, sneakers and other illicit goods on Canal Street led to 17 total arrests, with the rogue vendors facing a top charge of trademark counterfeiting property over $1,000, a felony in the state, Chief of Patrol Jeff Maddrey said.
“The area of enforcement we went to today resembled a local street market,” the chief said at a press conference a few hours after the bust.
“Sidewalks are blocked, there’s property everywhere, merchandise everywhere. This really impacts local businesses in a negative manner, as well as reduces the quality of life.
“We seized over three truckloads of merchandise.”
Maddrey said the department will start to step up its outreach throughout New York City on how to legally obtain vendor’s licenses as the holiday season approaches while reminding sellers: peddling counterfeit trade merch is still illegal.
“We recognize during the holidays, activities such as this will increase, and our efforts to deter this conduct, to investigate this conduct, will be ongoing,” Maddrey said.
Bill Friberg, a “counterfeit recognition specialist” and retired NYPD sergeant who Seventh Precinct cops brought on the raid, told The Post that most of the goods seized were from China or India.
“This stuff here is poor-quality fakes,” said Friberg, a managing partner at Triple I Associates LLC, according to his LinkedIn.
“Ninety-nine percent of it I can just look at it and tell you that it’s counterfeit,” he said.
Maddrey quipped as he palmed a phony Louis Vuitton bag, “I mean, listen. This look this looks good to me, but that’s why you have a specialist who comes and works with the company to tell us what’s good and what’s not.”
