An investigation by a Hong Kong newspaper has uncovered what it says is a group of illicit vendors selling counterfeit goods in several locations in the city.
About 20 vendors were spotted selling fake goods including sneakers, watches and clothes in Yuen Long in the New Territories, Sham Shui Po in Kowloon and Central on Hong Kong Island, according to the report by Oriental Daily on Saturday.
The reporters followed the group for a few days and found that the vendors started doing business in the afternoons outside Yuen Long Station. They put on display name-brand sneakers priced at only HK$100 (US$12) per pair, which attracted many customers.
The report claimed the group’s sales revenue could reach HK$20,000 in one afternoon.
The vendors moved to Long Ping Station after encountering officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
Reporters followed them and found that they ended business at 11pm and a private car picked them up and drove them to a warehouse in Sheung Chuk Yuen village in Yuen Long. They returned to get their goods the next day.
Pei Ho Street and Kweilin Street in Sham Shui Po, as well as the area around Exchange Square in Central on Hong Kong Island, were also sites of the counterfeit sales, the report said.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it would closely monitor those districts for people selling fake goods.
In the past two years, 403 cases involving the sale of counterfeit goods resulted in 588 arrests, according to figures released by the Customs and Excise Department, while the Immigration Department conducted 1,170 such operations and arrested 806 non-Chinese illegal workers.