News Two clandestine warehouses filled with counterfeit products were raided by FH teams and Dubai police. Several thousand timepieces were seized… The account of an adventure not without risks.
Tuesday 19 October
After a short night, in the cool of the morning, though one hesitates to use the word cool in this part of the world, we find our representative in the hotel lobby. Only just arrived from Switzerland, still drowsy from lack of sleep and the difference in temperature, we listen dutifully to the outline of the operation planned for the next day, «inch'Allah», God willing. Following a meticulous investigation and much checking and cross-checking of information, informers have identified two clandestine premises concealed on the second and third floors of a building in Deira, a densely populated quarter of old Dubai. Located a stone’s throw from the Gold Souk, a popular tourist destination, these two warehouses are used both as a temporary storage site and a sales office. Gangs of touts mingle with visitors in the market and are responsible for leading potential buyers to the right place, be it for a designer bag or a luxury watch. According to our sources, people even come from Africa to make purchases here. For two years, the FH has increased the number of police raids in an effort to dismantle this well-oiled trade in fake goods, with tangible results. One direct consequence: the sellers have become very wary and are sometimes prepared for confrontation in order to defend their property. Caution is therefore the watchword.
After this rapid briefing, we set off for police headquarters. The prosecutor who gave the green light for the operation has had the complaints sitting on his desk for several days. Now we must finalise operational details with officers without giving too much away, lest information should leak out and wreck our plans. On this point, our men are pros: only one investigator knows the precise address of the target. We will meet him when the time is right, a short distance from the site. Information will be exchanged on the street in a few quick words, giving the impression of a chance encounter.
Wednesday 20 October
We’ve been standing on the pavement for nearly an hour when the car appears carrying Samir, our local representative’s head of operations. No need to worry, word has it he’s «pünktlich», as we say back home. We head off to the target straight away. The labyrinth of narrow streets means we must park the car a good distance from the building, going the rest of the way on foot. Samir takes the lead, his phone pressed to his ear. We follow with hurried steps, caught up in a multicoloured crowd of pedestrians all seemingly intent on going the wrong way. At a bend in a busy side street, we meet plain clothes officers who join our team, and then, by the corner of a building, we see our informer. Some bowing and scraping, then the groups disperse once again. The informer meanwhile disappears as quickly as he materialized, melting into the dense crowd. For us, carried along on this merry-go-round, the overriding impression is one of complete chaos. But our fears are allayed. Finally, after many detours, we converge on the target. All groups are together, their movements perfectly coordinated. Yet despite our efforts to divert attention, it seems that one of the touts has spotted us. In this overcrowded and confined world, things are sensed rather than seen. We need to strike while the iron is hot.
With a wave of the hand, the chief sends groups into the building, one to the second floor, another to the third. The figures disappear quickly into the dark stairwells, using their mobile phones to light the way. On the landing, the targeted doors are locked. Have the sellers, warned by their accomplices on the street, had time to get away? Ferocious knocking on the door and shouted instructions from the police are met with silence. An officer gets down on his knees and places the back of his hand on the floor, against the door sill. There is a gentle current of cool air, the air conditioning is on. «They are inside, yallah». Pushing his colleagues aside, the sergeant strides forward. The door won’t be able to resist his battering ram for long. Under the powerful blows, the frame shatters and we hear the lock clatter onto the tiled floor. The police stand aside from the opening they have made, for fear that someone inside might open fire out of panic or desperation. The room’s three occupants are immediately handcuffed and laid on the floor. «Everything’s fine, you can come in too». We accept the chief’s invitation and step into the room, where a familiar scene greets us. The walls are covered from floor to ceiling with all kinds of counterfeit items, including several hundred watches piled on metal shelves. As we inspect these goods, the police give the sellers a grilling. Used to this kind of situation, our investigator taps the walls behind the shelves. Within a few minutes he has located a partition wall concealing more counterfeit watches, in all nearly 2,700 timepieces. We then walk up to the second floor to inspect the other room. Same scenario, given the door debris scattered on the floor. Here however there are no fake watches; instead, the haul consists mainly of handbags. Suddenly the tension slackens and we come to our senses. Forgotten in the stress of the raid, the heavy heat and acrid odours of these dark, airless corridors drive us outside, where we take in a deep lungful of fresh air, like drinking from a bottle. The suspects are led out, handcuffed, under the watchful eye of officers, with no illusions as to their fate. Curious passers-by cast fleeting glances, not without traces of empathy. They, too, know what awaits the counterfeiters: prison, followed by expulsion from the country and an inglorious return to Pakistan or India. Their dream of wealth in the Emirates has been shattered, much as the fake goods seized in the raid will be destroyed under the steel rollers of the crusher.
The fight against counterfeiting in Dubai: facts and figures
Since January 2013, the FH has organised eight raids through its local representative, seizing in the process nearly 90,000 fake watches. The main targets for operations are the warehouses that supply a wide network of clandestine sellers. Last February, two warehouses were visited by police and 33,000 fake Swiss watches were seized, preventing serious economic loss to wholesalers. In addition, it is good to note that we have secured six convictions in previous cases, with defendants ordered to serve prison sentences and autorisation given to destroy all confiscated items.
December 02, 2013
