BEIJING, August 18 -- Shanghai Pudong police arrested 12 alleged members of a counterfeit products gang last week and seized more than 6,000 articles of knockoff clothing and cosmetics worth about 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million).

    The goods included bags, watches, glasses, perfume, belts and suits bearing fake logos of top fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Channel and Cartier.

    Officers said the articles were being sold at Pudong's Waigaoqiao small commodity market and the Yatai Xinyang Fashion & Gift Market.

    Economic-crimes investigators began looking into those sites because they believed some of the dealers from the former Xiangyang Market - which was notorious for counterfeit goods - had relocated to Pudong after the market's closure, according to Qiao Yan of the Pudong Public Security Bureau.

    A monthlong investigation led police to nine suspected warehouses for counterfeit goods inside four residential buildings on Pudong's Xiabi Road.

    Officers decided to take action last week when a truck was spotted riding into the residential area with a load of knockoff goods and left later with another shipment of fake brands.

    To avoid tipping off the suspects inside the warehouses, police stopped the vehicle after it was outside the area.

    Another team of officers, in cooperation with industrial and commercial departments, raided the nine storage sites almost simultaneously and apprehended a dozen suspects, including the alleged ringleader, identified only as a Mr Zhou.

    Under Chinese law, the sale of products bearing fake trademarks can bring a fine and a prison sentence of up to three years. The term can range up to seven years, however, if illicit profits are substantial. Enditem