While surveillance can be a wonderful tool for identifying counterfeiters, it is not always a walk in the park. There are times when no proper vantage point can be identified, and other times where it is simply dangerous to attempt.
In one case, we had made an online purchase of a counterfeit item for one of our clients. We were able to trace the purchase back to a specific location. We visited that location to determine the best vantage point for surveillance. When we arrived, however, we spotted a hazard for the operation: the target store sat on the edge of a large and notoriously dangerous slum area. But we managed to spot counterfeit products from our client displayed in the storefront window.
Our judgment about the hazard of the location was valid. When we approached the police to request an enforcement action, they refused, citing fear of an uprising in the slum. Without support from the local authorities, we could not move against the target.
On another occasion, we set up surveillance on a house in a residential neighborhood where counterfeit products were being assembled. The location meant there would be no place for the surveillance team to set up unnoticed for long periods of time, we opted for a motorcycle and automobile conducting regular pass-bys. On the third pass of the motorcycle, our operative was forced to stop when a group of young men emerged from a neighboring house brandishing a variety of weapons, including machine guns and pistols. We had stumbled upon a group of drug traffickers operating in another house on the block. The group kept asking our man whether he was a narcotics agent – and it did not help that he was found carrying a camera.
Our man eventually persuaded the group that he had been hired by the ex-wife of the counterfeiter to check out movement at the residence, even showing the group photos he had already taken of the house. They eventually allowed him to leave – but without his camera.
Despite this setback, we were able to secure an enforcement action against the target where several hundreds of thousands of dollars of counterfeit products were being manufactured and stored. The traffickers never informed the counterfeiter about our surveillance, and the police later even followed up with actions against the traffickers.