Thirty Tons of Fake Cosmetics Confiscated in Latest Bust

Authorities on Tuesday raided another house storing counterfeit cosmetics in Phnom Penh, confiscating more than 30 tons of products that had been imported from neighboring countries and repackaged as foreign brands, an official said.

Touch Yuthea, deputy secretary of the Interior Ministry’s Counter Counterfeit Committee, said the cosmetics and lotions had possibly been imported from Thailand and Vietnam, and put in new bottles and labeled with stickers imported from overseas.

“After we check these products, if we find that the products are all illegal, we will write a letter to the court to request that they be destroyed,” Mr. Yuthea said.

“These lotions and cosmetics [can cause] too much of an impact on health,” he added.

The products in the house, in Chamkar Mon district’s Tuol Svay Prey I commune, were owned by Ing Touch, the same man whose warehouse was raided on Monday, netting about 20 tons of fake products, Brigadier General Yuthea said.

Mr. Touch, 42, was arrested during the Monday raid and was being questioned at the ministry, he said. The suspect would be sent to police for further questioning, he added.

The two raids this week followed a six-week undercover operation during which a government officer infiltrated the illegal business and reported on its activities, Brig. Gen. Yuthea said on Monday.

It is part of the ministry’s crackdown on counterfeits, with almost 70 tons of beauty products confiscated in two other raids earlier this month. They included items such as shampoo and skin whitening creams, packaged up to look as if they were made by major international brands, and were potentially worth millions of dollars. Meach Sophana, president of the ministry’s Counter Counterfeit Committee, called the busts “historic.”