MANILA -- Some P400 million worth of fake cough medicines and cellular phone chargers were recently nabbed by the Bureau of Customs at the Port of Manila.
Bureau of Customs Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Danilo Lim said the two forty-foot containers, which originally declared plastic wares and bags, were consigned to Imax Harbor International Trading Corp., an importer based in Ermita, Manila.
In coordination with lawyer Zsae Carrie de Guzman of the bureau's Intellectual Property Rights Division, the bureau also noticed marked discrepancies in the origin and specification of the shipment.
Among items found in the shipment are 130,000 capsules of counterfeit Tuseran Forte at 10 milligrams (mg), 15 mg and 325 mg; 55, 000 pieces of counterfeit cellular phone batteries (Nokia, Sony, Ericson, Motorola and Samsung); and 9,000 pieces of counterfeit cellular phone chargers.
Other counterfeit items found in the containers were 720 pieces of Loius Vuitton bags, 180 pieces of Coach bags, 10,000 pieces of Hermes pouch/bags, 180 pieces of Chanel bags, 810 pieces of Gucci bags, and 30,000 pieces of wristwatches.
The counterfeit items reportedly originated from China via Hong Kong.
This is the second biggest catch made by the agency in the past six months. In August last year, an estimated P700-million worth of fake luxury branded items were seized by the customs bureau from an operation it conducted at King's Plaza Building at Binondo, Manila.
"There will be more in the coming weeks and months,” Lim said. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)