34 detained in the south for the sale of counterfeit goods

Agents of the Policia Nacional have detained a total of 34 people for the sale of counterfeit goods in shops located in Playa del Inglés, in the southern tourist municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana.

Specifically, 27 men and 7 women between the ages of 20 and 63 years of age, many of them already with prior police records for similar contraventions, were detained as the alleged perpetrators of crimes against industrial property. For the detention, the agents made 17 reports in commercial premises where they discovered counterfeit products worth an estimated total of €3,360,384 at official recommended market pricing.

The arrests came after agents learned of the alleged sale of counterfeit goods in several shops in the south of Gran Canaria, mainly aimed at foreign tourists, according to the National Police in a press release.

Inspections were carried out in 17 commercial premises located in a shopping centre in Playa del Inglés, in which the Policia Nacional had the collaboration of an expert in the Ministry of Culture’s Antipiracy Commission. The inspections uncovered almost 8,500 counterfeit products with a market value that could reach €3.36 million, including  a large number of sports shirts, sunglasses and bags of well recognised commercial brands.

The 34 people detained are all owners, managers and employees who were identified by the agents as those responsible for the sale of these products, for which they were detained as alleged perpetrators of a crime against industrial property.

Finally, when the corresponding police reports were completed, they were sent to the competent Judicial Authority along with all the items seized.

Though the police reports do not mention which shopping centre the raids were carried out in, we have eye witness reports informing us that Shopping Centre Yumbo may well have been at the epicentre of the operation as we know there was a major police raid on premises there last 25 of September.