The Russian police confiscates 7 million dollars worth of counterfeit commodities

During a special operation in February the Russian police confiscated counterfeit commodities to a value of 211 million roubles (about 7.4 million dollars), chief of the Main Department on Combating Economic Crimes of the Russian Interior Ministry Alexei Orlov said at a press conference in Moscow.

According to him, the Counterfeit-2004 operation had been worked out and conducted jointly with the State Trade Inspectorate with the aim of de-criminalisation of the intellectual property market. As a result, the illegal activity of 48 enterprises putting out audio and video products have been checked, 189 criminal cases launched and more than 6,000 administrative violations discovered.

The Interior Ministry spokesman said, for example, that in the territory of corrective labour centre in Novosibirsk, a major industrial and scientific centre in Western Siberia, the police checked the activity of the organised criminal group which produced and sold audio-products. It confiscated 85,000 compact discs, 80,000 audio cassettes and equipment for their production to a total sum of 50 million roubles (about 1.8 million dollars).

Such operations will continue in the country, a spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry underscored.