Luxury Counterfeit Bags and Clothing Distributed in 50,000 Boxes... Coast Guard Uncovers Smuggling Organization Worth 1.5 Trillion Won

A large-scale smuggling organization that disguised about 50,000 boxes of counterfeit luxury brand goods as transshipment cargo and brought them into the country for distribution has been uncovered.

On the 7th, the Incheon Coast Guard announced that it had referred 17 people, including the domestic smuggling ringleader Mr. A (51), to the prosecution without detention on charges of customs and trademark law violations. The Coast Guard also requested Interpol to issue red notices for two Chinese ringleaders, including Mr. B (50), who supplied the smuggled goods.

Mr. A and others are suspected of smuggling 55,810 boxes of counterfeit goods from China to Korea 266 times between November 2020 and September last year. The counterfeit goods brought into the country included bags, clothing, and perfumes from the three major luxury brands known as "Erusha" (Herm?s, Louis Vuitton, Chanel), with a genuine market value reaching 1.5 trillion won. This is known as the largest smuggling amount in a single case handled by the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard seized 657 boxes (40,721 items) of the counterfeit goods, but the remaining 55,153 boxes were already distributed domestically and were being sold both online and offline. Considering that about 50 bags are contained in one box, the Coast Guard estimated that more than 2.75 million counterfeit products were circulated.

Luxury counterfeit goods seized by the Coast Guard from a smuggling organization
[Photo by Incheon Coast Guard]

Investigation revealed that Mr. A and others disguised counterfeit products produced in China as transshipment cargo, loaded them onto container cargo ships, and illegally removed the counterfeit goods from the Incheon International Airport Free Trade Zone, where transshipment cargo is classified and transported, including Incheon Port. They committed the crime by exploiting the fact that transshipment cargo passing through Korea is considered export-import between foreign countries and can avoid domestic customs procedures. They also used a so-called "curtain method," hiding counterfeit goods inside the container while placing genuine products such as mobile phone batteries on the outside.

They systematically divided roles to secretly bring counterfeit goods into the country and distribute them. In China, production and smuggling were handled, while in Korea, removal, transportation, and sales were divided. The domestic smuggling and financial managers operated as a tightly organized group without even knowing each other personally.

After receiving information in April last year that counterfeit goods smuggled by sea were being distributed domestically, the Coast Guard uncovered the smuggling site in September of the same year, securing evidence and smuggled goods. Subsequently, the investigation expanded to include the domestic smuggling ringleader, financial managers, and sales agents, and after more than a year of tracking investigations, the entire domestic smuggling organization was arrested.

A Coast Guard official said, "Maritime smuggling infringes on maritime borders and disrupts domestic and international market order, constituting a serious crime," adding, "We will relentlessly track those leading the smuggling industry and eradicate smuggling."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.