Cops seize $1M in fake watches, perfume

NEW YORK, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- New York police seized more than $1 million in fake perfume and watches and arrested nine people in a raid after a batch of real brand-name watches vanished.

The more than two dozen real Casio watches -- which vanished from a cargo shipment between New York's Kennedy Airport and a New Jersey warehouse -- allegedly were sprinkled among the counterfeit ones in a store called Perfume Mart Inc. in Midtown Manhattan, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police said.

The same allegedly was done with legitimate name-brand perfume.

The store sells "designer scents" for as much as half off retail, the New York Daily News reported.

Undercover police officers posed as discount-hungry customers and bought knockoff watches and perfume before announcing the raid Wednesday, the newspaper said.

They found more than 100,000 counterfeit items, including Movado Swiss luxury watches and perfumes from Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana and British luxury fashion house Burberry.

Police caught some suspects mixing batches of fake perfume in the basement, officials told the New York Post.

A truck also pulled up with a new shipment of counterfeit goods during the raid, the News said.

The suspects were charged with trademark counterfeit, possession of stolen property and money laundering, officials said.