Chinese police bust gang selling fake handbags

Chinese police have caught 25 suspects for allegedly selling fake luxury handbags online to overseas customers, including Louis Vuitton (LV) branded items, authorities said Tuesday.

Police from Shanghai Municipality and east China's Fujian Province have confiscated more than 60 computers and servers and 1.75 million yuan in cash (about 280,000 U.S. dollars), Shanghai police said.

Last August, French fashion house Louis Vuitton reported to Shanghai municipal public security bureau that it had found counterfeit LV handbags in international markets. Some of them came from Shanghai, the police said.

After several months of investigation, a gang attracted the police's attention. In 2009, gang leaders established Tengchuang Information Technology Company in Fujian and rented servers from a Shanghai firm to operate more than 200 English-language websites to sell the fake products, police said.

The websites, which used foreign IP addresses, advertised authentic products at lower prices. The company collected counterfeit luxury handbags, watches and accessories from factories in Guangdong and Fujian, and transported them to Beijing and Shanghai by express courier.

They then delivered the fake luxury goods to foreign customers in more than ten countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain and Greece, said Qian Honghao, a Shanghai police officer.

Qian said more than 80 percent of the gang members have bachelor's degrees, and the company's average monthly sales hit 2 million yuan. Further investigation is under way. Endi