Counterfeit items discovered

By Ed Runyan

‘It was loaded’ with millions of dollars worth of goods, the police chief said of the warehouse.

WEATHERSFIELD — Acting on a tip from police in Monroe, Ohio, police officers raided a warehouse on Youngstown Warren Road in McKinley Heights Friday and found truckloads of counterfeit purses and other goods that were being sold illegally throughout Ohio, including the Rogers Flea Market.

Weathersfield Police Chief Joseph Consiglio, whose department led the raid because the warehouse is located in Weathersfield Township, said four people were arrested in the investigation, two before the raid and two afterward.

Consiglio said his department, assisted by Niles and Monroe police, found millions of dollars worth of merchandise during the raid.

“It was loaded,” he said.

The warehouse is south of Tibbetts Wick Road on the west side of Youngstown Warren Road, in a building that has housed used-car sales and other businesses over the years, Consiglio said.

When the purses, household goods, clothing, school supplies and other items were hauled out Friday evening, the merchandise filled six trucks, each about two-thirds the size of a semi trailer. The goods went to an undisclosed location in Cleveland. Monroe, in southwest Ohio between Cincinnati and Dayton, has two large flea markets, said a police dispatcher there.

Consiglio said Monroe obtained some information about a possible warehouse in McKinley Heights because of counterfeit merchandise being sold in Monroe and notified Weathersfield police on Thursday.

Consiglio didn’t have the names of the four people arrested, but said the two arrested in connection with the warehouse were from Pennsylvania and New York and were arraigned in Niles Municipal Court on Monday.

Two others were arrested in Rogers in connection with activities at the Rogers Flea Market and were to be arraigned in Columbiana County, Consiglio said.

The chief said the merchandise came into the United States from China through New York City and was being distributed throughout Ohio from the warehouse. Dealers were selling the goods at flea markets and many other locations, Consiglio said.

He said the individuals running the warehouse were renting the one-story facility.

Consiglio said he believes people buying the goods have a moral obligation to notify someone when they see items that don’t appear to be legitimate.

“These companies [the companies being copied] put a lot of money into their merchandise,” he said.

runyan@vindy.com