Portugal´s Authority for Food and Economic Safety (ASAE) has seized counterfeit goods worth €8 million in the first half of 2014.
A total of 2.3 million products have been seized, including clothing, auto parts, perfumes, pharmaceuticals, drugs, cigarettes, electrical items and toys.
This result is a significant improvement on the same period last year when seizures added up to ony €1.3 million.
ASAE commented that the significant rise in results was due to "a new operational strategy, focused on strengthening the efficiency of research and monitoring."
Inspectors made 22 arrests and prosecuted 141 traders.
Comments
Hearing this from the Police in other more developed countries - an impressive doubling of results; would be odd as it would be assumed to already be happening ...
Is it not more likely driven by a recently arrived Chinese Golden Visa multi-millionaire arrival wanting to corner this lucrative market for his clan? So 'dobbing in' the previous top man's deliveries to make space on the shelves in the Chinese loja's for his own counterfeir gear ? So- will the total drop back next year ?
When talking about illegalities entering, being 'trafficked' or travelling through Portugal to be trafficked elsewhere - we must remember the 1600 - an average 5 a day of - minors.
From a Portugal image point of view - it would be quite useful to have "a new operational strategy" here too ?