22 November 2008
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Significant cases
Intellectual property (IP) crime is a generic term used to describe a wide range of counterfeiting and piracy offences. INTERPOL contributes actively to the collective effort to combat transnational and organized intellectual property crime by facilitating and supporting cross-border operational partnerships. Examples of these efforts include Operation Jupiter, a project set up to target IP criminal activities in specific regions. Operation Jupiter – South America focuses on enhancing partnership and prevention in the tri-border area of South America - Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Organized crime groups involved in IP crime typically engage in cross border activities, and the tri-border area represents a particularly challenging environment for law enforcement. Further to the success of the different Operation Jupiter actions in South America, it is now being expanded to other INTERPOL regions, with the hope of wider cross-industry support for the initiative. While the INTERPOL General Secretariat co-ordinates action and operations, actual interventions, arrests and seizures are performed by national police and customs agencies in participating countries. A planning meeting hosted by the INTERPOL Sub-Regional Bureau for the Americas and the Argentine police was held in Buenos Aires to initialize the pilot operation. Of particular importance was the fact that representatives from the pharmaceutical, recording, motion picture and tobacco industries also took part in addition to the heads of National Central Bureaus (NCBs) from the three participating countries. A total of twelve targets were identified, including significant counterfeiting plants and distribution centers. Interventions took place over a four month period and resulted in significant and tangible successes. This further illustrates the value of different industry sectors sharing information and working with INTERPOL and national police forces to combat common problems. The results of Operation Jupiter-South America were reported to the Latin America Regional Forum co-hosted by the government of Brazil and INTERPOL which took place in Rio de Janeiro shortly afterwards.
Operation Jupiter-South America I was launched with the support and participation of the national police forces of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Brazilian customs also joined the operation, together with representatives from pharmaceutical, recording, motion picture and tobacco cross-industry representative bodies. This was the first time four different industry sectors joined together with representatives of federal police and customs agencies from the three countries to combat IP crime. There were immediate benefits for participating industry sectors. These included identification of common expertise, crime prevention measures, investigation methodologies and good practice. During the operation, the International Federation for the Recording Industries (IFPI) worked with the federal authorities in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and was able to file a total of 14 complaints with supporting evidence and five individuals were arrested. Two of the arrests involved Taiwanese nationals with suspected links to organized crime. In Brazil, customs authorities made 36 seizures and detained 79 suspects for smuggling and counterfeiting offences. The estimated value of the seized contraband/counterfeit goods was approximately 6.2 million reais (US$3.5 million). Of the 36 seizures, three were specific anti-counterfeiting operations which resulted in 29 arrests and seizures estimated at 747,000 reais. On the Paraguay-Brazil border customs officials seized 2.24 million blank CDs, an increase of 80 per cent from previous levels. The Federal Highway Police also routinely seized bus and truckloads of blank CDs and DVDs in the border area destined to be used for the piracy of optical disks. In Paraguay, there were seizures of some 8,700 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes. In the port of Asunción, as a result of information from one of the pharmaceutical companies participating in Operation Jupiter, more than five million counterfeit toothbrushes were seized. The success of these operations were dependent upon a willingness by representatives of participating industries to engage in the frank exchange of information with their counterparts in other industry sectors for the common good. The four industry sectors involved in the operation immediately recognized the benefits of doing so and pooled their expertise most effectively. INTERPOL is an international organization and cannot carry out these types of intervention on its own. The role of the INTERPOL Intellectual Property Crime Unit was to act as a catalyst by facilitating and coordinating activities. It was the national law enforcement agencies who actually did the hard work, invested resources and put their people in harm’s way to deliver these results. The INTERPOL Intellectual Property Crime Unit acknowledges the support of the national police forces and customs authorities of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay for their outstanding contribution to the success of Operation Jupiter-South America I.
The second Operation Jupiter – South America was carried out shortly after the first, this time with the additional participation of Chile and Uruguay. The operation was facilitated and coordinated by INTERPOL’s IP Crime Unit and the INTERPOL Sub-regional Bureau for South America with the assistance of the General Secretariats Directorate for Sub-regional Bureau Management (RBM). Three planning meetings chaired by INTERPOL and attended by representatives from participating industries and IP crime affected industry sectors were held in Buenos Aires and Iquique prior to launching this second operation. It should be noted that the role of INTERPOL was to act as a catalyst for action and coordinate the operation. Actual interventions, arrests and seizures were carried out by police and customs agencies in participating countries. The additional participation of Chile and Uruguay meant the flow of suspected counterfeit goods in and out of the ports of Iquique in Chile and Montevideo in Uruguay was monitored. Intelligence arising from this surveillance was used to inform the operational deployments of police and customs officers in the tri-border area. A feature of the second operation compared to the first was the increased involvement of customs authorities in each of the countries. In some instances prosecutors also contributed to the planning process. There were also more industry sectors participating in the operation, with representatives from luxury goods manufacturers joining the original four industry sectors (Pharmaceutical, recording, motion picture and tobacco industries). The intelligence flow before, during and after the operation was far better than previously experienced in the region. This combined with enhanced co-ordination by INTERPOL led to significantly improved results. Involvement of transnational organized crime groups An analysis of the counterfeit and pirate products seized and suspects arrested in the tri-border region during Operation Jupiter – South America II clearly illustrated the nature and extent of transnational organized criminal involvement in these offences. A common denominator is that foreign nationals and nationals of Middle Eastern and Asian countries were well represented in these criminal conspiracies. Analysis indicated that typically transnational organized criminals of Arab, Indian and Pakistani origin have a controlling influence in informatics. Typically transnational organized criminals of Chinese origin have a controlling influence in CD/DVD pirate manufacturing and distribution as well as sports clothes and luxury goods. Results It is often difficult to quantify the value of seized counterfeit and pirate products. However, a conservative estimate of the total potential retail value of contraband and counterfeit products seized by the five participating countries during this operation is in excess of US$35 Million. The type of counterfeit and pirate goods seized varied from country to country. They included CDs; chemicals; cigarettes; clothing; computer hardware and software; DVDs; domestic electrical goods; electronics; fabrics; medical products including counterfeit body building products; medicines; shoes; textiles; toys and vehicle parts. A total of nine illicit CD/DVD manufacturing plants producing pirated products on an industrialized scale were identified and closed during the course of the operation by police and customs officials working in partnership with the recording and motion picture industries. Many of the seized product types including counterfeit domestic electrical goods; medical products including body building products; medicines; toys; and, vehicle parts had the potential to affect the health and safety of consumers. Apart from counterfeit and pirate goods other illicit commodities were seized – including more than 3,000 rounds of different caliber ammunition; 1600 kilos of cannabis; and, 3.2 kilos of cocaine. Highlights of each country’s results arising from police and customs interventions, and reported to INTERPOL are shown below. Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
Conclusion Operation Jupiter – South America II confirmed INTERPOL is uniquely positioned to facilitate and coordinate collective law enforcement interventions in the counterfeit and pirate activities of transnational organized criminals. It reconfirmed the willingness of INTERPOL member countries and their INTERPOL National Central Bureaus to work with the INTERPOL IP Crime Unit, INTERPOL Sub-regional Bureau for South America and INTERPOL Sub-regional Bureau Management Directorate (RBM) to tackle and resolve collective problems. It illustrates the benefits police, customs, prosecutors and representatives of IP crime affected industries derive from working together in partnership to combat transnational organized IP crime. INTERPOL recognizes the contribution made by the police and customs authorities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay before, during and after Operation Jupiter II. Without their enthusiastic cooperation, interest and support the benefits derived by all participants would not have materialized. The INTERPOL IP Crime Unit would especially like to thank the Head and staff of the INTERPOL Sub-regional Bureau for South America for their efforts and regional leadership role in bringing this operation to fruition. The International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) started an investigation into the theft of a number of original unreleased music recordings by The Beatles. These recordings were made in 1969 and subsequent versions of the work were released on the album ‘Let It Be’. These priceless pieces of musical heritage were stolen when the record company relocated to new offices. The IFPI, in partnership with the City of London Police in the United Kingdom, established that some of the stolen items had surfaced in Luxembourg, where they had been pirated. The search warrant executed by the Luxembourg authorities also recovered pirated copies of the stolen Beatles recordings. As a result of further investigations, police were able to establish that the person who stole the original Beatles recordings was an engineer working in the studio where they were stored. He was arrested and admitted to having kept a copy for himself and sold the original recordings to two Dutch nationals for £50,000. An undercover operation was mounted by the City of London Police in an effort to recover the original recordings, and police were able to arrange a meeting with the suspects with an offer to buy the original recordings for £250,000. The meeting was scheduled to take place two weeks later in the Netherlands. Because of the urgency of the case, the City of London Police sought the assistance of the INTERPOL IP Crime Unit, which used I-24/7, the organization’s secure global police communications system, and personal contacts to expedite the request to Dutch authorities for the authority and necessary assistance to undertake the undercover operation in the Netherlands. A series of raids was carried out in the Netherlands and United Kingdom. Five hundred original reel-to-reel tapes featuring the Beatles music were seized and six suspects arrested for theft and handling stolen goods The International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) asked INTERPOL’s IP Crime Unit for assistance in an ongoing investigation into cross-border and organised CD counterfeiting activity centered on Luxembourg, Austria and the UK. IFPI investigations had established the identity and location of distribution centers in the three countries, but the principal suspect was believed to be operating on a global scale. The INTERPOL IP Crime Unit used I-24/7 and established direct contacts to obtain the co-operation of British, Austrian and Luxembourg law enforcement officers. The Austrian authorities assisted the IP Crime Unit by deploying investigative resources to identify the location of a second building which was found to be another business address of the principal suspect. The INTERPOL IP Crime Unit then co-ordinated the activities of the Luxembourg, Austrian and British authorities to carry out simultaneous raids in all three countries. These raids led to the seizure of 1.5 million counterfeit CDs. This remains the biggest single seizure in Europe and had significant implications for the Beatles case. The International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) provided INTERPOL with information about a plant in Belgrade that produced counterfeit CDs. The equipment used in the manufacturing plant was acquired from another operation in Italy. The source plant in Italy was also responsible for supplying similar equipment to other counterfeiting operations in Bulgaria and Russia. These connections were established by forensic analysis of the counterfeit CDs manufactured using these apparently unconnected pieces of equipment. As a result, the industry was able to prove the extent of the music piracy activity and link the Belgrade plant in Serbia to the investigations in Bulgaria and Russia. INTERPOL’s IP Crime Unit was contacted, and through I-24/7 and direct contacts, it was confirmed to Serbian authorities that the Belgrade plant was part of an international organized crime operation. As a result of the intervention by INTERPOL, police in Belgrade initiated an investigation and raided the plant. A total of 750,000 counterfeit CDs were seized. There are also instances where partnerships between INTERPOL and industries affected by IP crime have led to the successful conclusion of police investigations into a wide range of serious criminal offences. INTERPOL crime intelligence officers responsible for the investigation of child pornography asked IIPCAG for assistance. During the course of an international cross-border investigation into child abuse images posted on the Internet, the investigating officer was able to obtain images of two unidentified suspects. A bottle of shampoo appeared in the background of one of the images, but the brand could not be ascertained. This was the only available lead to help investigators identify the location of the offence. The image was circulated to industry and law enforcement members of the IIPCAG by the IP Crime Unit in an attempt to identify the brand. Shortly thereafter, representatives of Procter & Gamble provided information that indicated the product was manufactured in Germany. As a direct result of this information, investigators were able to focus their enquiries on Germany. One of the suspects was arrested and charged with child pornography offences by German authorities. Operation Jupiter III - South America started on 1st October 2007 and ran until 31st December 2007. The same model was repeated: INTERPOL, working in partnership with police forces and customs agencies from 5 countries: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, with close cooperation and support from the private sector. During the period of OJ III the participating agencies collaborated successfully, communicating the results of their operations, in real time, for analytical development at local and regional level, and requesting information from the INTERPOL databases and recording of that information in those databases. The following of the many operations undertaken are to be highlighted, due to number of offences detected or for the volume of goods seized: Argentina:
Finally, with a total of 134 criminal procedures against organizations involved in Intellectual Property Crime and the number of seizures of counterfeit products now valued at an approximate sale value of U$S 121,895,631.00, OJIII has exceeded the achievements of OJII. Similarly, 185 persons were arrested as a result of OJIII, surpassing the preceding Operation Jupiter by 43%.
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