Gdf seizes 170,000 counterfeit products including 75,000 Pokemon cards

Military officers from the Rimini Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza seized more than 21,000 items including clothing accessories, key rings, collectible playing cards, and telephone accessories, all reproducing logos and distinctive signs of ownership of brands such as Nike, Apple, Nintendo, Walt Disney, and Pokemon, which had been unduly affixed. Going up the chain of counterfeiting, two more businesses located in the historic centre of Rimini were then identified. The law enforcement action led to the seizure of a further 150 thousand products, including toys, trading cards, key rings, clothing and telephone accessories, also in this case, unduly reproducing logos and distinctive signs of ownership of brands such as Nike, Apple, Nintendo, Walt Disney, Pokemon, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, which were found to be counterfeit. In particular, over 75,000 counterfeit Pokemon cards were seized.

These cards, collected by young cartoon fans, are also the object of interest of adult fans and collectors: the rarest cards can reach values ranging from tens of thousands up to millions of euros. This is a growing market that can also yield huge sums of money and, for this very reason, has attracted the attention of counterfeiters.
The four businesses were all run by foreigners, who were reported to the judicial authorities at large and will have to answer for the crime of counterfeiting trademarks and receiving stolen goods.