Gardaí seize over €140k worth of fake Apple AirPods, phone cases, designer goods and cash

Fake Apple products, fake Otterbox phone cases, luxury designer goods, and cash have been seized as part of a special multi-agency operation targeting intellectual property crime.

Gardaí carried out two searches under warrant at business and residential premises in the Dublin 1 and Dublin 13 areas on Friday, seizing luxury goods, suspected counterfeit items and cash.

Among the items seized were 180 pairs of suspected counterfeit Apple AirPods Max headphones with an estimated loss of revenue of €104,400, alongside 185 suspected counterfeit fake Otterbox mobile phone cases with an estimated loss of revenue of €5,500.

Other items included luxury goods with an estimated value of €6,000 by brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Balenciaga and Hermes, while €25,710 in cash was also seized.

"The Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT) have once again shown their effectiveness in tackling Organised Criminal Gangs operating across our capital city,” said Assistant Commissioner Paul Cleary, Dublin Metropolitan Region.

“Large-scale Intellectual Property theft and the associated Money Laundering offences are controlled by well-structured criminal networks who risk the safety of the public by selling poor quality counterfeit products, often attempting to pass them off as genuine.”

The searches were conducted by the An Garda Síochána Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) Intellectual Property and Counterfeit Investigations Unit, and the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT), assisted by the National Criminal Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI).

The suspected counterfeit items are now subject to examination.

“No arrests have been made at this time. Investigations are ongoing,” a garda spokesperson added.