Feds seize $400,000 in counterfeit Super Bowl memorabilia

Posted by Mike Florio on February 18, 2010, 5:21 PM EST

A month-long operation headed up by federal and local law enforcement authorities in South Florida resulted in the seizure of 8,165 items of counterfeit Super Bowl-related memorabilia and other counterfeit items valued at more than $400,000, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today.

The NFL cooperated with law enforcement in an operation dubbed Operation Faux Bowl, which started before the Pro Bowl and yielded six arrests.

“Two major games in the same week, in the same city was a strong magnet for criminals who steal trademarks and knock off trusted brands to sell their substandard wares,” said John Morton, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “ICE made a major dent in these criminals’ plans to profit from fan enthusiasm. We struck a blow for the consumers, the businesses and the American workers who are hurt by this kind of crime.”

Most of the seized items were knockoffs of allegedly official NFL merchandise. Special agents seized counterfeit merchandise in Miami Beach, Miami Gardens, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Boca Raton and other South Florida cities.

Permalink 33 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

33 responses to “Feds seize $400,000 in counterfeit Super Bowl memorabilia”

  1. A crime that no one cares about. Go to any city after a professional or college sports national championship and half the fans are wearing knock-offs because they can buy them for about 25 cents on the dollar. If the NFL didn’t try to bend the fans over on every single item purchased of it’s product line, they wouldn’t see nearly as big a problem.

  2. Thank God the feds are keeping us all safe. I mean, they could be going after terrorists or violent offenders, but thankfully our children will be safe from the scourge of unlicensed NFL gear.
    I remember when I was a kid, a friend of mine (Timmy) died when his unlicensed hat squeezed off the top of his head.
    Don’t let this happen to you! And thanks again to the Feds. I’ll sleep soundly tonight.

  3. I’m sure it cost the feds & local police $2-3 mil. to recover $400k in knockoffs. Good thing, cause we can’t have $400k in knockoffs out there. The world is a better place now.

  4. I don’t think too many American workers are hurt by paying a fraction of what they otherwise would for memorabilia.

  8. why should i give the nfl 30 dollars for a teeshirt when i can buy one for 10 dollars from the hustlers?

  9. This is what our government concerns itself with. Not the trillions of dollars the financial industry has taken from us, but some small time trademark bootleggers trying to make a few bucks.
    Let the NFL get its own goons to hunt people down who steal from it. Why should my tax dollars pay for this s h ! t!

  11. Shoudn’t ICE be a bit more concerned about illegals washing ashore than non hologram tagged t-shirts?

  12. “a strong magnet for criminals who steal trademarks and knock off trusted brands to sell their substandard wares,”
    Kinda sounds like the 0-3gles and Philly.

  13. In this economy!? I would take knock offs ANY DAY over licensed NFL material. The real thieves the Feds need to go after is those running the NFL.

  14. As I watched the head of my commemorative Roger Goodell bobblehead fall off it’s base and roll across the floor, I knew something horrible was afoot.
    If we have to chase these bastards all the way to a cave in Tora Bora, then do it. They must be stopped before some poor kid has to live the nightmare I was forced to live.

  16. This doesn’t go on just on at championship events. Go to any game outside any NFL stadium on any other Sunday of the season and you’ll find a ridiculous amount of counterfeit goods or items with unlicensed use of logos, slogans, etc.
    And like Contra said, the Feds need to after after the real criminals. Professional sports have taken advantage of fans and exploited them during superior economic times with unethical price increases. If the guy on the corner can sell a t-shirt on the corner and make an adequate profit, maybe the NFL needs to look at it financial efficiency ratios and reevaluate its operations and resulting prices and margins.

  18. “Substandard wares”? Did they have a bunch of Andre Ware Pro Bowl jerseys? Or did Demarcus not play up to his potential? LOL

  19. yes! score another one for corporate america ! i remember when i was young, broke, and naive in college and bought a bootleg spring break t-shirt with bart simpson on it, and it fell apart after 3 washings…i learned my lesson! book ’em, Rog!

  20. I feel safer to know the feds got 400K worth of NFL knockoffs off the street. Now if the cops could just do something about the terrorists, drug smugglers and murderers out there

  22. Action Dan says:
    February 18, 2010 5:35 PM
    …fake Vikings gear.
    —————————–
    Action Dan stutters.

  23. Now are they going to stitch an official NFL logo on that $400,000 worth of fake merchandise and resell it for $2,000,000?

  24. whats going to be funny is when the cops are wearing the stuff to the next party they go to, probably commenting on the quality.
    the NFL isnt worried about consumers getting something of substandard quality, the NFL is worried that somehow, probably with the use of magic, someone has been able to print a cowboys logo on a T-Shirt for under $27.99.
    the criminals are the ones that run the NFL, not the bum trying to hawk a Tshirt for 10bucks.

  25. So they confiscated a bunch of lousy t-shirts and hats made in east Asia in order to protect a different bunch of lousy t-shirts and hats made in India.
    And this is helping the American worker how?

  26. ICE shouldn’t waste their time unless they’re tracking illegal aliens who are wearing counterfeit merchandise into the U.S.

  27. Oh my god, i haven’t been sleeping just because all of those knockoffs out there. Man this is great to hear. I mean, the child molester down the street will now have to buy a real jersey. That will fix him…lol. What a joke, we can’t stop criminals so we stop dumb shit like this.

  28. The higher the price on the jerseys and other items that the NFL sells is, the more people will be drawn to the bootleg items. Few people care that the NFL isn’t getting the money that it is entitled to because they own the rights. However, where people P.O., and rightfully so is that when you charge close to 300 bucks for an authentic jersey for a player who won’t even be on the team in 2-5 years; you have a serious problem.

  30. When will they crack down on the fake teams and players that are all over the NFL
    come on Farve cant be real no real person could end a good season with an INT 2 times in three years
    LA Vikes
    Venus and Serina will love the beach

  31. “Feds seize $400,000 in counterfeit Super Bowl memorabilia”
    Is this $400,000 the amount the “criminals” were going to sell the merchandise for? Or is it the amount the NFL would have sold it for? Because if it is the latter, we are only talking about 20 or so t-shirts and a few dozen jerseys.
    Whenever I hear about a drug bust, the cops value it at about 10x what it’s worth. But then again, I value bacon way more than it’s worth.

  32. “We struck a blow for the consumers, the businesses and the American workers who are hurt by this kind of crime.”
    I think he meant to say Chinese workers.

  33. They charge us full price for fake games in the pre -season, so why don’ the goverment do something about them. because they are big business that why, and we are just the little guy we don’t matter

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.