Tons of fake goods intercepted under Operation TIGRE 3

23 May 2014

Customs officials intercepted 21.3 million counterfeit and pirated items at 21 ports across Central America, South America and the Caribbean during a one-week enforcement operation to combat counterfeiting and piracy called TIGRE 3. The operation, which took place in November 2013, was coordinated by the WCO with funding provided by Japan Customs.

Following the use of sophisticated risk assessment and systematic inspection, eighty-four maritime containers were found to contain counterfeit goods. Customs officials in Panama, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Jamaica, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, and Colombia took part in the operation. As part of the operation, they had received specialized training in risk analysis and targeting by WCO IPR Experts.

Among the tons of counterfeited goods intercepted were games and toys, heath care products, and textile items. TIGRE 3 built on the success of TIGRE 2, tripling the results of the previous operation in which Customs intercepted 6.8 million fake items.

The primary objective of the Operation was to analyze and deter the counterfeiting and piracy phenomena in these regions and to test the practical applicability of risk analysis standards under real-life conditions. The operation also promoted co-operation with rights holders, and made use of the WCO anti-counterfeiting tool, Interface Public-Members (IPM).