The National Police has seized almost half a million counterfeit toys and collectibles, mainly Pokémon cards, worth some five million euros in a warehouse on the Cobo Calleja industrial estate, in the Madrid municipality of Fuenlabrada, and has arrested a marriage.
This is "one of the largest seizures to date in Spain and in Europe" of Pokémon cards, as the representatives of the affected international brands informed him, reports Efe with sources from the intervention.
The investigation began months ago, when in the area of the industrial estate, considered by the Police a "hot spot" for counterfeit items, a surveillance device was established to prevent crimes against intellectual property.
The agents detected a constant movement of carriers and buyers in a ship that also had unusual security measures.
The warehouse was located in a strategic location in the industrial estate and carried out all its activities behind closed doors, clandestinely, when this is not usual in this type of warehouse.
Specifically, a man was placed outside the warehouse to control the entry and exit of customers without raising the suspicions of the Police.
The agents decided to carry out an inspection inside the warehouse, where they found a huge amount of counterfeit products.
The ones that most caught the attention of the police were the Pokémon cards, an item that is booming, explained the aforementioned police officer.
He added that some of the card packs imitated limited editions of the brand, which could sell for high amounts of money on the market.
The articles were distributed from the warehouse to small businesses throughout the national territory.
The ship was in charge of a couple made up of a man and a woman, both highly specialized in the trade of this type of article.
In addition, they had rented the ship by providing false documentation that had been reported as lost, all to make their identification difficult.
The two were arrested on May 3 accused of a crime of documentary falsification and another against industrial property.
