Over 2,000 boxes of fake international shampoo and body wash brands, estimated to have a value of 25 million yuan ($3.9 million)， were confiscated by Beijing Police in a campaign to rein in the city's booming counterfeiting industry, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) announced Sunday.
Fourteen suspects were arrested and five storehouses were destroyed in a raid on October 20.
The gang targeted brands from companies like Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble. Police discovered boxes of Unilever product Lux, fake Colgate toothpaste and 165 boxes of counterfeit perfume and cosmetics from luxury brands like Lancome, Estée Lauder and Hermès.
The gang's network covered over 10 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Hebei Province and Tianjin, said Beijing PSB.
The preliminary investigation showed that after purchasing the fake products at a low price from Guangdong Province, the suspects distributed them to many public bathhouses and sauna centers, including a number of high-end establishments in Beijing.
Police discovered order lists, and found that some of the capital's well-known bathhouses, such as No.8 Club, Hannashan and the Hot Club were on the suspects' lists.
Those involved in the spa industry have said it is unfair to blame them for using fake products.
Li Kai, general manager of Quanjincheng Group, a Korean-style spa, is also director of Beijing Bath Trade Association.
"There's no way to tell fake ones by the prices and packages," he said.
"Nobody likes to purchase fake products, but it's almost impossible for us, the purchasers, to guarantee the quality of every bottle, because we are not quality testing and control authorities. The suppliers have 'genuine' certificates [for the products]," said Li.
He pointed out that there should be more crackdowns on the production sources, and bath center operators wanted to know more about the specific standards and explanations in the bath products industry.
Local police started investigating this counterfeit ring in January, after receiving a tip-off that a company, which had rented two storerooms in Xicheng district, was using it to store fake products.
Xicheng district police cooperated with municipal police, who together raided the storerooms on the morning of October 20, arresting the main suspects, surnamed Yang and Xu.
According to police tests, the products seized included trace elements and minerals which highly exceed the standard amounts, containing mercury, sulfur, benzene and other heavy metals.
Experts have said the chemicals could be potentially harmful to health.
"Poor quality shampoo and conditioner are harmful to health, which will cause skin allergies, irritations, and ulceration as well as other infectious diseases, and if excessive amounts of heavy metals are contained inside, long-term use of those products could cause toxic reactions to people," said Liu Yuehua, director of the dermatology department at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Spa and sauna customers have said they will be very cautious using products the bathhouse provides in future, and think spas should be more careful when sourcing their products.
"I'll take my own stuff if I go to a sauna. The bathhouse and [municipal] quality supervision department should take responsibility to stop these fake products, since they may be harmful to people's health," said He Dapeng, a Beijing resident who has been to Quanjincheng spa twice.
Police in Beijing and other cities destroyed tens of thousands of fake and substandard goods Sunday.
The authorities have handled 1,230 cases involving 1,850 centers that dealt in fake goods and 490 counterfeiting gangs. A total of 5,970 suspects have been arrested, to prevent fake products including phony alcohol, tobacco, medicine entering the market.
The efforts are part of a national campaign to thwart the production of imitation designer clothes, fake cosmetics and foodstuffs which begun last October.
