The second Europol-co-ordinated operation ‘Ludus II’ across 21 countries has led to the seizure of millions of hazardous toys with a total value of more than €18 million.
Europol said in a statement on Thursday that it had co-ordinated operation Ludus II to target the trafficking of counterfeit toys and other goods between October 2021 and January 31, 2022. The Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil), Spanish National Police (Policia Nacional) the Spanish Customs authorities (DAVA) and Romanian Police led the operation, which involved law enforcement authorities from 21 countries.
The EU Anti-Fraud Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office also supported the operation, while the World Customs Organisation (WCO) took part as an observer and provided secure communication with its members to support the operational activities.
During the operational phase of Ludus II, law-enforcement authorities performed checks and inspections to detect illegal shipments and storage. More than five million counterfeit toys were seized.
“A number of raids followed online investigations initiated on e-commerce platforms. The majority of fake toys were imported from East Asia to the EU, UK and the US. Authorities detected intellectual property rights violations, lack of CE markings and EU Declarations of Conformity and the presence of undesirable dangerous substances,” Europol said.
“The seizures made during the operation included counterfeit and illegal puzzle games, video games and related characters, board and card games, dolls and puppets from famous TV series, bricks for children and clothing and accessories from famous brands,” Europol said.
Thirty websites were shut down and more than 2 600 administration/health prevention cases were opened.
“The seized goods contain risks such as chemical exposure, strangulation, choking, electric shock, damage to hearing and fire hazards. This was the outcome of an analysis of the EUIPO on these alerts, which led to the setting up of the first operation Ludus in 2020,” Europol said.
In the Lazio and Campania regions, the Italian Financial Corps intercepted and seized a large amount of illegal puzzle games coming from an Asian country. The toys were stored in two warehouses. The French customs authorities disrupted a regular supply of counterfeit toys, which were sold via a famous e-commerce platform.
“The investigation, named Pokezone, allowed authorities to detect a large amount of products, which were being sold on the internal markets of France and six other countries,” Europol said.
Participating EU Member States included Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Third-party countries included Côte d’Ivoire, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
