Police seize $650K in counterfeit merchandise from Arlington warehouse, officials say
The owner of an online business has been arrested after Arlington police seized more than $650,000 of counterfeit merchandise, one of the largest seizures in department history, from the company’s warehouse, officials said Tuesday.
Oumar Dia, 35, was arrested in Dallas County over the weekend on the charge of trademark counterfeiting, according to an Arlington Police Department news release. Dia is the owner of Creo Piece, an online company that sells embroidered patches and heat transfer products.
Police received a tip July 10 from the owner of a company that protects intellectual property that Creo Piece was selling merchandise with counterfeit trademarks, according to Dia’s arrest warrant affidavit. Undercover detectives purchased four patches from Dia, which experts verified were counterfeit, police said.
The Department of Homeland Security told police that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had seized three separate shipments intended for Dia that contained “items that violated intellectual property law,” according to the affidavit.
On Aug. 2, authorities executed a search warrant for the Creo Piece warehouse, located in the 500 block of Prairie Street. Officers from the Arlington Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations seized an embroidery machine, a heat transfer printing machine and a total of 101,118 items of counterfeit merchandise, valued at $653,222 on the Creo Piece website, the release said.
Some of the merchandise featured the trademarks for Gucci, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, among others, according to the affidavit.
Dia was booked into the Dallas County Jail over the weekend but has since bonded out, according to the release.