Dubai: Police in Dubai have seized counterfeit merchandise worth Dh34 million in the first 15 days of Ramadan.

The seizure came as part of a campaign in collaboration with the Department of Economic Development, launched at the beginning of Ramadan, as some people take the month as a chance to promote fake big-brand goods on a wide scale.

The items seized included counterfeit watches, handbags, women’s clothes and accessories, eye-glasses, pens and scarfs that are all of famous luxury brands.

Major General Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant to the Dubai Police Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said that the campaign will be intensified over the next few days leading up to Eid, as the number of counterfeit goods increases during this period.

He said that they are intensifying police patrols in commercial areas, on direct instructions by Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Dubai Police Chief, so they can monitor the products carefully and seize any counterfeits.

The push is to preserve and protect the intellectual property rights of the owners of the original brand name and prevent the spread of counterfeit goods and their negative effects on the economy and on society.

Maj Gen Al Mansouri explained that Dubai Police takes strict measures against people committing economic crimes and that they hunt them down in Dubai, the UAE and even in other countries so that they can be brought to justice.

Lieutenant Colonel Rashid Saleh Bin Thaboi, Deputy Director of the Anti-Economic Crime Department at the Criminal Investigation Department at Dubai Police, said they found apartments and storage areas in Al Karama and the Gold Souq areas that stored knock-offs.

The team, he said, catch an average of five such cases a day, since the beginning of the campaign. Legal action is immediately taken against the people involved and they are transferred to prosecution, the apartments are shutdown and the names of the owners of the apartments on the black list.

He said the teams raid the apartments, seize the fake goods and arrest those involved.