Flammable costumes or toys with parts dangerous to children are some examples of illegal items that have been removed in recent weeks. Municipal police have seized more than 52,500 counterfeit toys and products, including 7,500 to date. … is doing a Christmas campaign. At this time of year, efforts intensify to protect consumers, industrial and intellectual property rights and fraud, which can amount to hundreds of thousands of euros.
This was explained by the Vice Mayor of Madrid and Delegate for Security and Emergencies of Madrid City Hall, Inma Sanz, who was also accompanied by the head of the judicial coordination station of the municipal police, Commissioner Rodolfo Arenas.
Of more than 7,500 counterfeit products seized since the end of November, more than 4,000 correspond to the same intervention, and have an estimated value of 30,000 euros on the market. The operation was carried out by the Judicial Coordination Police Station in collaboration with the Carabanchel Police Station and the Central District Police Station.
The remaining toys were seized in different police stations in the capital during different actions. The largest took place on December 4, when officers from the Moncloa-Aravaca police station seized some 2,500 products.
The Corps stressed that avoiding the marketing of counterfeit products at Christmas “is not only achieved thanks to the intervention of the police during these days” of winter, but that for months the arrival of these products in points of sale has been prepared, and the municipal police “act to prevent it”.
So, beyond these seizures, police reported that last July, more than 42,000 toys and other products were seized from various stores and warehouses as part of what is known as “Operation Bluey”. These products had a market value close to eight million euros.
In March, police seized nearly 3,000 counterfeit toys at a manga fair in Barajas, worth more than 70,000 euros. Among the seized objects, some stand out which, beyond the violation of intellectual property, present a danger to children due to the risk of suffocation or poisoning.
In addition to toys, Madrid City Hall reported the seizure of some 10,700 counterfeit items, including sports t-shirts and complete kits of well-known teams, tracksuits and other accessories. All these objects were in a warehouse on Amparo Street, in the Centro neighborhood, and two people were arrested for these events.
This operation was carried out in mid-June by the Judicial Coordination Commission, whose agents also carried out Operation White a few months later, during which they seized more than 3,200 sports jerseys in a store and arrested four people.
Operation Barba Blanca, divided into two phases between June and September, also resulted in the seizure of another 3,300 textile and leather items in Centro and Chamartín. All objects seized by the Police are stored both in the police warehouses and in the Villa Warehouse, the municipal space dependent on the Area of Economy, Innovation and Finance located in Vicálvaro.
“We continue to work in the area of counterfeiting of industrial and intellectual property, the amount of money lost in these industries, the number of jobs that would be generated if these counterfeit products were not on the market,” emphasized Sanz, who pleaded for “public-private collaboration” with companies affected by counterfeiting.
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