LOS ANGELES — More than 200,000 counterfeit apparel items and pirated CDs and DVDs, with a street value of $2.8 million, were seized last week in the second-largest raid in Los Angeles County history.
Operation Clean Sweep, which took place from Dec. 18 to 20 in multiple downtown Los Angeles locations, yielded 28 arrests.
Among the apparel items were “virtually every luxury designer — Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Cartier, Ed Hardy, Coach,” said a spokesperson for Los Angeles Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who chairs the Los Angeles Anti-Piracy Task Force.
Counterfeit goods cost Los Angeles County businesses $5.2 billion in lost revenue in 2005, the most recent data available, plus $2 billion in losses for the retail sector, according to a report released this year by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
According to LAEDC, piracy of movies and music costs the local economy $4.4 billion in lost wages annually.