Police: Creo Piece owner arrested for counterfeit products

Next up in 5

Example video title will go here for this video

ARLINGTON, Texas — Arlington police said they've arrested a man after making "one of the largest seizures of counterfeit merchandise in department history."

Police said they were told earlier this summer about an Arlington-based online business that may have been making and selling items with copyrighted trademark logos for high-end fashion brands.

Detectives started investigating the business Creo Piece, which they said mainly sells embroidery patches and heat transfer merchandise.

Police said undercover officers bought several items from the company, then counterfeiting experts confirmed they were "unlicensed and fraudulent."

This month, officials obtained a search warrant for the company's warehouse, which is in the 500 block of Prairie Street. Arlington officers and agents with Homeland Security Investigations seized 75 boxes of merchandise, an embroidery machine and a heat transfer print machine.

Detective Richard Jablon led the investigation. "He had a sophisticated operation going," Jablon said. "What brought us to this one was the large scale."

Police said the boxes contained over 101,000 items. Based on prices on the Creo Piece website, the items are worth $653,222.

The department shared photos of embroidery patches with logos from brands like Gucci and Coco Chanel.

"If you could think of the designer, he probably had a patch from that company," Jablon said.

Police said they then obtained an arrest warrant for the business owner, identified as 35-year-old Oumar Dia, for one count of trademark counterfeiting. He was taken into custody and booked into the Dallas County Jail over the weekend. Police said he has since bonded out.

According to Jablon, Dia has more than $30,000 in a business account.

Arlington police said the Department of Homeland Security had prior dealings with Dia prior for three separate seizures of counterfeit products going to his residence, and those cases combined totaled more than $600,000.

Other local news: