Smuggling ring caught after making millions of euros

Thousands of consumers paid 3.27 million euros over the last couple of years for counterfeit trainers brought into Greece and sold by a gang recently busted by the country’s Financial Crime Squad (SDOE). The fact that this is the turnover of just one gang that was focused on a single commodity illustrates the size of the problem for consumers, state revenues and the companies that operate legally.

SDOE announced on Friday that the ring was identified earlier this month, and comprised a number of people. It used misleading ads on Facebook to sell shoes that were supposedly manufactured by well-known sports brands at particularly low prices.

Authorities found out about the ring after September 20, when they intercepted a container with 7,932 pairs of counterfeit Adidas and Nike trainers inside. The container had originated from Albania and its final destination was declared to be a corporation in Albania.

Inside the container there were also 36 boxes with 432 pairs of non-brand shoes used as a smokescreen by the smugglers to conceal the counterfeit trainers and mislead customs authorities. The losses of the companies that own the brands has been calculated at 1,055,100 euros.