Spanish and Portuguese officials have been working in perfect harmony at the end of a year long investigation into counterfeit goods being made in the north of Portugal and just over the Spanish border.
The Luso-Spanish operation against counterfeit goods has seen the closure of ten factories in Portugal after investigations into 37 factories in the north of Portugal and in Spain that were suspected of producing counterfeit clothing and footwear.
Portugal’s Authority for Food and Economic Safety (ASAE) seized 656,000 counterfeit items.
"We have acted in very close cooperation with the Spanish police by sharing information and adopting a strategy of combatting the production of counterfeit material, not at the retail stage or during distribution, but at the production sites," explained the director general of ASAE, Pedro Gaspar.
The joint team hit 37 production sites, some small, some large and 91 people have been arrested and charged, including 23 in Portugal.
The total value of the seized goods was around €500,000.
