CBP stops entry of fake toys, iPhones

Customs officers in Laredo, Texas, and Puerto Rico seized the shipments.    U.S. Customs officers at the Laredo, Texas, border crossing seized 18 shipments of counterfeit rechargeable toys between late June and early September, the agency recently announced.
   The shipments, which were selected for exams by import specialists and the agency’s Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center, included battery chargers that infringed on the safety trademark of Underwriters’ Laboratories. The total value of the shipments (4,671 toys) is $1.3 million, based on the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of the legitimate product.
   Meanwhile, CBP commercial enforcement teams in late August confiscated fake products at the San Juan Air Cargo facility in Puerto Rico, including two knockoff iPhone 6 cell phones, two Samsung Galaxy phones and 319 iPhone panels.
   “Counterfeiters have the audacity of selling fakes even before the new branded product makes its official unveiling,” Marecelino Borges, director of field operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, said in a statement referring to the iPhone 6.