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CBP Louisville seized $67 mil worth of counterfeit watches in under a month

Officers said they continue to see thousands of fake accessories make their way to ports of entry.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continues to seize thousands of counterfeit designer watches entering the Port of Louisville. 

Throughout the month of September, over $67.07 million worth of fake watches were seized. The 3,345 watches were found in 66 separate shipments. 

CBP officers confiscated 59 counterfeit Rolex and Audemars Piguet watches from two different shipments at the start of October. If these watches were real, combined they would have been worth $2.68 million. 

According to the CBP, both shipments were coming from Hong Kong. However one destination was Puerto Rico and the other was headed to Miami. 

The watches were determined to be fake by the agency's trade experts.

Credit: CBP Louisville

Consumers believe they are buying the real thing, when they are just cheap copies. 

“CBP officers play a critical role in the Nation’s efforts to keep unsafe counterfeit and pirated goods from harming the American public,” Port Director-Louisville Thomas Mahn said. 

Counterfeit watches and jewelry make up a large majority of what CBP officers end up confiscating at ports of entry. An average of $650 million have been seized by the officers over the last two years of just fake accessories. With more than a quarter of them coming directly from Hong Kong. 

“This is yet another dramatic example of how CBP officers work every day to protect the American consumer, the US economy and US jobs," Mahn said.

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