AUTHORITIES seized P201 million worth of counterfeit footwear and arrested five foreign nationals in a two-day operation in Bulacan, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Director Brigadier General Romeo Caramat Jr. said Wednesday, June 7, 2023.
In a statement, Caramat said the first operation was conducted at the King Sport Property Compound in Barangay Lambakin in Marilao on June 5. It resulted in the recovery of 1,311 sacks containing 62,000 pairs of fake Crocs and Havaianas footwear worth P180 million.
Arrested during the operation were Lian Chang Jiang, 33; Wu Gu Ding, 60; and Chu Jen Huang, 64.
In a follow-up operation on June 6 in a warehouse in Barangay Duhat, Bocaue, Bulacan, CIDG operatives arrested Shuzhen Wang and Zhengfeng Lin who yielded similar products worth more than P21 million.
“They represent themselves as authorized distributors of those products, inducing the public to believe that the goods offered are original, at a price that is way below the distributor price of the company. Further investigation is being conducted by the detectives of CIDG Region 3 to identify and locate the supplier of the seized counterfeit products,” Caramat said.
Last week, CIDG Central Luzon Field Unit also seized around P13.5 million worth of counterfeit Crocs in Marilao, Bulacan.
Charges for violation of Section 155, 168 and 169 of Republic Act 8293 otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines will be filed against the arrested suspects. (SunStar Philippines)