Reported by: Lynn Giroud
Photographed by: Tyson Thorp
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
A raid at Traders World flea market Saturday netted hundreds of knock-off purses and about a dozen vendors now face charges.
Monroe police Lieutenant Brian Curles told 9News, "We have hundreds and hundreds of stuff. We took in a total of 22 booths to seize these goods."
"We have several, I'd say, around seven booths where people just left their stuff and abandoned the booths," said Lt. Curles. "And we're gonna have a problem trying to track them down, because the flea market doesn't keep detailed records of who rents the outside booths."
"The big deal of counterfeit purses, it's putting people out of jobs," said Lt. Curles.
"The federal government has done multiple studies on this and the money is being funnelled back to terrorists," Lt. Curles said. "This is being made in different countries, shipped into the country illegally. It's being distributed illegally."
In all, officers confiscated about 900 purses, along with wallets, hats and sunglasses.
They packed a rental truck full of the counterfeit merchandise.
All of the items just hours earlier were up for sale at the Traders' World flea market.
About a dozen other vendors were identified, cited and will face charges.
The investigation began a month ago when a company that works for some of the biggest designers contacted the Monroe police department.
They went undercover, bought some of the purses and sent them back to the designers who confirmed the purses were indeed fakes.
So officers returned to Traders' World and found hundreds of Prada, Louis Vuitton and Chanel knock-offs.
Police say the vendors pay about two bucks a piece for the bags, and turn around and sell them for about $50.
The vendors will be charged with counterfeiting – and depending on the value of the purses, they could face federal charges as well.
