Dallas Police Major Crimes Unit Makes Huge Counterfeit Bust

Officers from the Dallas Intellectual Property Rights Task Force ran a search warrant last week on the “Big T” Plaza in the 4500 block of Village Fair Drive where several businesses were selling counterfeit handbags, jewelry, clothing, shoes, and accessories.

Members of the Dallas Intellectual Property Rights Task Force participating in this operation included the Dallas Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, Grand Prairie Police Department and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.

During this operation, officers arrested five individuals for Trademark Counterfeiting, a third degree felony, and seized over 13,500 counterfeit items with an MSRP value of almost $3 million. 

Detectives from the Intellectual Property Rights Task Force said this was an important operation because the sale of counterfeit merchandise hurts the economy and often times the money earned from selling counterfeit merchandise is used to fund terrorism. While detectives have not found any direct links to terrorism in this case, they want individuals to know that selling and purchasing counterfeit merchandise for any reason will not be tolerated in the City of Dallas. 

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