Officers from the City of London police are celebrating this week after smashing a piracy operation suspected of selling in excess of $10m worth of fake Cisco products.
The counterfeit operation was broken by detectives from the force’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) last week, according to an official note released on Thursday.
Two men aged 36 and 35 were arrested at their homes in Sawbridgeworth and Birchanger, while a third man, aged 38, was cuffed at work in Bishop’s Stortford.
They’re suspected of running a counterfeit business importing, exporting and selling fake Cisco kit through a website and over the phone.
The bust is also a victory for cross-border co-operation, with City of London police working with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside Cisco’s Global Brand Protection team on the investigation.
Some 40 shipments of suspected counterfeit Cisco gear is believed to have been posted from the suspects’ business address to the UK between December 2012 and April this year – and intercepted by US Customs and Border Protection.
Pirated Cisco kit worth an estimated $1m was seized after police raided the suspects’ homes and the business address in Bishop’s Stortford, according to the release.
This is a big win for the PIPCU, which launched in April 2013 with financial backing from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Although a national unit, it is based in the Economic Crime Directorate of the City of London Police, the national policing lead for fraud.
“Last week’s action saw PIPCU dismantle a criminal gang suspected of cheating the computer industry out of millions of pounds,” said PIPCU detective inspector, Mick Dodge.
“Cisco products are used by organizations worldwide to underpin their IT infrastructures. Businesses need to have confidence in their supply chains and be aware of the risks that counterfeit products can have on their networks, potentially compromising integrity and functionality including significant network outages.”
Transatlantic co-operation to fight piracy has been stepped up of late.
In December, Europol and US officials closed down 292 domains as part of the long-running ‘In Our Sights’ campaign to clamp down on counterfeit goods.