A cut-price clothing factory in Turkey has been shut down after a major police operation on both sides of the border foiled a multi-million euro counterfeiting racket, it was revealed this evening.
More than 100,000 items of fake designer goods and soccer shirts destined for markets across Ireland were seized when Turkish authorities raided a plant in Istanbul.
They acted on an intelligence dossier provided by detectives in Belfast and Dublin following months of undercover work.
Superintendent Andy Sproule of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Crime Operations branch claimed one of the biggest supply routes for counterfeit gear had been smashed.
He said: "This was a major coup for us after a cutting edge investigation.
"To get that amount of clothing is highly significant."
Police were alerted to the factory after officers swooped on warehouses close to the border used to store imitation jeans, football tops and sweat shirts.
In the Garda's largest ever success against counterfeiters, more than €1.5 million worth of clothing was netted at Carrickarnon, Co Louth on March 6th.
Even though the seizure halted bundles of imitation gear from being sold at markets in both jurisdictions, police chiefs battling to thwart huge quantities of gear being shipped in were about to score much bigger success.
About a week later Turkish officers, acting on information from the PSNI and Garda, brought all manufacturing at the factory to a halt.
"There was millions of pounds worth of counterfeit clothes there," Mr Sproule confirmed.
"The joint PSNI-Garda operation and follow-up searches in Turkey led to it collapsing."
PA