Following a 19-month investigation organised by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection, 29 people have been arrested in three separate complaints concerning conspiracy to smuggle over 950 shipments of merchandise into the United States principally from China through the ports in New Jersey, Texas, California, and New York, and/or conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods.

The first complaint involves two schemes to smuggle over 900 shipments of  counterfeit and authentic merchandise including counterfeit Coach, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, and Balenciaga handbags, Rolex watches, and Nike footwear, during which counterfeit merchandise worth, if authentic, in excess of $650 million was seized.

The second complaint charges nine defendants with two schemes to smuggle counterfeit merchandise including Nike sneakers, North Face jackets, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, and Fendi handbags, and True Religion jeans. Law enforcement officers seized containers of counterfeit merchandise worth, if authentic, more than $11 million in one smuggling scheme, and 22 containers with over $25 million of counterfeit in the other.

The third complaint charges defendants with conspiring to import counterfeit goods, including Coach handbags, into the United States and to traffic in those goods.