Operation Red Zone

Red zone

 

Operation Red Zone was the largest seizure of sports-related apparel in history; a nationwide enforcement operation which began in September, 2012 and concluded six months later, with seizures of professional sports apparel and souvenirs amounting to $17.3 million in MSRP–196,333 items including fake jerseys, ball caps, T-shirts, jackets, sweatshirts. Sports jerseys accounted for nearly 29 percent of all seized counterfeits.

Special agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and state and local police departments around the country worked in partnership with the NFL and other major sports leagues during the operation.

Operation Red Zone not only targeted international shipments of counterfeit merchandise as it entered the United States, but also focused on warehouses, stores, flea markets, online vendors and street vendors. 168 counterfeit tickets for the SuperBowl were also seized with an MSRP of more than $154,000. Forty-one individuals were arrested nationwide during the operation including six federal and 35 state and local arrests