Walsall Council Trading Standards has revealed that officers have successfully retrieved £1.5 million of counterfeit goods from a “gang” storing their illegal wares in South Walsall.
‘Operation Flash’ involved four West Midlands police offers, five officers from the National Markets Group and five Trading Standards officers, who forced open a van to discover a large haul of counterfeit goods being held at a self-storage facility.
7,500 items were retrieved including clothing and footwear.
David Elrington, Head of Community Safety & Enforcement said, “Our Trading Standards Officers work hard behind the scenes in their efforts to keep us all safe from shoddy and often dangerous counterfeit items. While some items may not be dangerous, they will not be of the quality of the brands who are frankly being ripped off and this also impacts on our local businesses selling genuine branded products of good quality.
“Often counterfeiters may also be involved in and fund other organised criminal activity such as drugs, trafficking and slavery so cracking down on this will ultimately help prevent other crime.
“Having £1.5m of counterfeit goods seized will hopefully send a strong message out — don’t do this in Walsall, because we’re all watching you.”