Super Bowl counterfeit goods seized in the US

NEW YORK (AP): INVESTIGATORS HAVE seized more than $21.6 million in knock- off souvenir football jerseys, caps and other merchandise, shut down illegal websites, and made dozens of arrests in a crackdown on Super Bowl counterfeiters, authorities said yesterday.

The seizures and arrests were announced at a Manhattan news conference where National Football League (NFL) and law enforcement officials displayed fake Payton Manning and Russell Wilson jerseys – complete with knock-off Adidas labelling – Broncos and Seahawks hats, Super Bowl T- shirts, and other goods made to look like official NFL gear.

The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League.

The league and law enforcement “are working hard to prevent fans from being scammed by criminals seeking to profit from the public’s passion for the NFL, their home teams and the Super Bowl,” Anastasia Danias, an NFL senior vicepresident said in a statement issued three days before the game in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

During an eight- month operation, investigators seized more than 202,000 Super Bowlrelated items that, if legitimate, would have been worth more than $21.6 million. Authorities called the dollar amount a record for similar enforcement operations before other Super Bowls, including one last year that netted about $17 million in seizures.

Authorities say most of the knock-offs were manufactured in China. They say, once the makers learned the Broncos and Seahawks made the Super Bowl, they rushed to make the goods with the teams’ logos. Then the goods were smuggled into the United States, often using overnight shipping.