Police Confiscate 160,000 Pairs Of Phony Nike Sneakers

In what authorities are calling one of the largest seizures of counterfeit goods in American history, police confiscated 160,000 pairs of fake Nike sneakers from six separate locations in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.

The sneaker operation was one of four alleged counterfeit rings selling fake goods with brand names such as Nike, Motorola, and Microsoft, all recently broken up by police.

The phony sneakers, which authorities said had a street value of $7.1 million and could fill 18 tractor-trailers, were seized on September 12 after a two-year investigation that led to the arrests of Yue Huang, 26, and his wife, He Bin Huang-Wang, 26, authorities said. An undercover detective posing as a buyer infiltrated the Staten Island-based ring in August 2005, and throughout the investigation purchased hundreds of pairs of fake Nikes, as well as knock-off Louis Vuitton handbags, authorities said. During one purchase in 2005, the female investigator swapped $2,690 for five boxes containing counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbags, authorities said.

Investigators believe the brand name counterfeits were manufactured and trafficked into New York from overseas, and are working with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to discover the source.

A counterfeit operation based out of the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, where two suspects, Hananya Ederi, 27, and Jacob Eran, 28, allegedly sold counterfeit Motorola Blue Tooth earpieces that were made in America, was broken up earlier this month.

Motorola tipped investigators to the scam after several people called the company complaining that the earpieces were causing a burning sensation in their ears, authorities said.