Five held as Hong Kong customs break up gang selling fake Chinese medicine to stores
About 4,000 items of counterfeit proprietary Chinese medicine with an estimated street value of HK$500,000 were also seized
Hong Kong customs officers have broken up a local syndicate that supplied counterfeit Chinese herbal pills and medicated balm to local retail outlets.
The alleged ringleader, a 29-year-old woman, was arrested along with her parents at a warehouse in Chai Wan, in eastern Hong Kong Island, which was used as a storage and distribution centre for the fake goods.
Another two men, who worked as salesmen, were picked up when officers raided two drug stores in the Mong Kok area of Kowloon, the Customs and Excise Department said.
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About 3,500 boxes and 500 bottles of counterfeit proprietary Chinese medicine with an estimated street value of HK$500,000 (US$64,100) were seized at the warehouse and retail outlets raided on Monday.
“It is the biggest seizure of this kind in the past three years,” Guy Fong Wing-kai, head of customs’ Intellectual Property Investigation (Operations) Group, said.
The fakes were of products from three Hong Kong brands – Wong To Yick, Bull Head and Nan Lien – and one mainland Chinese brand, Beijing Tong Ren Tang, and were mostly used to treat joint pain, rheumatic arthritis or coughing.
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