BUYER BEWARE: FAKE GOODS PROVIDE REAL MONEY FOR TERROR GROUPS

NY Post ^ | Nov. 30, 2003 | JENNIFER GOULD KEIL

[Pharmboy]

November 30, 2003 -- Think twice before you pay cash for a fake Gucci bag this holiday season - you may be funneling money straight to Osama bin Laden. Law-enforcement agencies and trademark specialists are actively exploring links between counterfeiting organized-crime groups and terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas.

[Pharmboy]

When some of my younger relatives come into NYC, the first thing they want to do is get a fake Gucci watch from a street vendor. Mebbe not...

[jocon307]

"We can do a raid today and tomorrow there will be more out there,"

Sure, because yesterday more arrived. Immigration moratorium now.

[coloradan]

Will the White House run TV ads during the superbowl, "If you buy purses, you help the terrorists!" ?

[WL-law]

I've seen these guys in Times Square. I sincerely DOUBT that they would turn one red penny of their hard-huckstered dollars over to anyone. It costs big $$ to live in NYC, and they are not getting rich selling their wares.

I don't understand why the police don't round them up, as they set up shop openly right on the sidewalk.

[BagCamAddict]

"More than 60 percent of New York City's counterfeit trade is run by Nigerian organized-crime groups working directly with al Qaeda,"

Bump this.

[hellinahandcart]

It costs big $$ to live in NYC, and they are not getting rich selling their wares.

"Rich" is relative.

There were a couple of guys from Senegal who set up near where I used to work. They sold ropes of fake pearls, and had a nicer product than a lot of the blanket folks (you could get a three-foot strand for about $5). We got to know these guys over a period of months. Both were married. Both were living in a one-bedroom apartment in Queens with about 15 other men from Senegal (nothing but mattresses in the apartment). Yes, it was expensive to live here, but with the money they were making, it would be possible to go back to Senegal in a few months and open a small shop. I took that to mean that you could set yourself up in a business in Senegal for a few hundred dollars American, and there was literally no way to earn the money there.

A few months later they were gone.

[hellinahandcart]

It's news to me, Yehuda.

[ladyinred]

I saw a ton of these fake purses at our local county fair, and was tempted to buy one. I decided not to, and after learning about this terrorist connection, I am so glad I didn't.

I have bought items from the Arabs who were selling them in the past and I am a little startled to think they are here every year and may be involved in this kind of operation!

[ladyinred]

Anyone else heard of this link before?

I haven't, but then the Clinton administration covered up most of the information from that bombing. They didn't want us to suspect this was really a terrorist ring you know, just an isolated incident with a few extremists.

[newwahoo]

The guys with the tables with licenses hanging around their necks are legit. The African guys spreading things on blankets are the guys in question here.

[Indrid Cold]

Maybe the CIA had a corner on the drug trade.