Police confiscated about 38 tons of fake cosmetic products from two Phnom Penh locations and arrested the owner and three staff members, according to authorities.
Brigadier General Touch Yuthea, deputy secretary of the Interior Ministry’s Counter Counterfeit Committee, said authorities found 38 tons of fake skin and hair care products imported from Vietnam—including products labeled as Swiss brand Pantene—in a Friday raid of a warehouse in Chamkar Mon district’s Tuol Svay Prey commune and a shop south of Olympic Market.
Four people were arrested and brought to the committee’s office for questioning, including shop and warehouse owner Chen Sokha, a 52-year-old Vietnamese national who had been running the business for six or seven years, Brig. Gen. Yuthea said. The three staffers were released after questioning, but Mr. Sokha will be detained while the investigation continues, he said.
“The procedure is very complicated, and there are so many different types of products, so it needs time to examine the samples,” he said. “It requires experts to get involved.”
He said the counterfeit goods had been distributed throughout Phnom Penh, but was not certain if they made it to the provinces.
This latest arrest followed a raid of about 30 tons of cosmetic products in Phnom Penh and Kandal province, announced on World Intellectual Property Day last week.
In a separate counterfeit case, the General Commissariat of National Police warned in a press release on Friday of high numbers of counterfeit Chivas and Johnnie Walker brand whiskies entering the market.
