Long Beach customs agents seize 18,560 pairs of fake shoes

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered 18,560 pairs of fake Nike sneakers inside two shipping containers that arrived from China, Associated Press has reported. The ship’s manifest listed the containers as holding drainage pipeline fittings, but when officers at the Port of Long Beach opened them they found the shoes instead. “The average consumer who walks into a store I think would be fooled by them,” said Bonnie Lemert, U.S. Customs and Border Protection acting port director for the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport. So far this year, the customs agency has seized at least eight containers of footwear, mostly the Nike brand, said the federal agency’s spokesman Mike Fleming. Last year, agents seized $20.6 million dollars of counterfeit merchandise, and 80 percent of the fakes come from China, authorities said.