30 police officers raided two shopping malls situated on Pattaya beach road and rounded up about 10 dealers who were selling counterfeit garments and sports gear.
Unbelievably over 10,000 pieces were seized estimated to have a street value of 5 Million baht and included fake copies of brands such as Lacoste, Polo, and Surf.
Some quick witted vendors were able to get away however by doing so they also lost all their goods.
The raid took place after an order to the National Police Department to take effective measures in cleaning up black markets in popular tourist destinations.
The fake goods are confiscated by police
This is being done to reinstate the images of the country after it has been widely criticized by many global production companies of being a hub of manufacturing for fake items especially for clothing and sports gear.
However theses sweeps will have to continue on a regular basis if the authorities really expect to wipe out this type of crime as supply and demand means that there are plenty of consumers looking for these discounted products.
Perhaps the police should be focusing their efforts in the same way they do with drug dealers, by finding the root of the problem, the factories and so called sweat shops or perhaps that would be impossible since these people know only too well how to share the mutual benefits with the right ranking.
