More than 200 counterfeit watches seized at Chicago O'Hare Airport by border officials
More than 200 counterfeit watches seized at Chicago O'Hare Airport by border officials
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it confiscated more than 200 counterfeit watches earlier this week at O'Hare Airport in Chicago.
Photos provided by the department show the seized watches attempting to emulate high-value models, including the Rolex Submariner, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Omega Speedmaster.
Handout photo of a fake Rolex watch seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at O'Hare Airport in Chicago on May 4.
The shipment arrived from China on May 4 and was set to be delivered to an address in Bensonville, Illinois.
CBP claimed in a May 6 news release that the 243 watches seized would have a retail value of over $6.64 million if they had been authentic.
'The distribution of counterfeit goods defrauds U.S. consumers and has a significant adverse impact on businesses by robbing our country of jobs and tax revenues,' LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, Director of Field Operations for the Chicago Field Office, said in the statement.
Knock-off watch seizures continue
The knock-off watch seizure continues a pattern for CBP as it stated it intercepted 145 shipments of counterfeit watches in April at O'Hare in a statement released earlier this month.
ADVERTISEMENT
The department said that the shipments originated from Hong Kong and China. The 516 counterfeit watches emulated brands including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier and others.
CBP said the that the April seizures would have had a retail value of over $9.22 million if they had been authentic.
The department said that U.S. consumers spend more than $100 billion every year on knock off goods, falling victim to approximately 20% of the counterfeits that are illegally sold worldwide.
James Powel is a trending news reporter with USA Today Network. Email him at jpowel@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Border agents catch over 200 fake watches at Chicago O'Hare Airport
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
a day ago
- Fox News
SEN JOHN CORNYN: Congress must reimburse Texas for Biden's border security malpractice
Print Close By John Cornyn Published June 05, 2025 The government's most basic duty is to keep its citizens safe. President Joe Biden woefully neglected to fulfill this obligation, allowing our borders to be overrun by millions of unvetted illegal immigrants, criminal aliens and cartels smuggling deadly synthetic opioids. Far from Washington, border states like Texas were left to suffer the consequences. Texas spent billions of dollars on Operation Lone Star in an attempt to abate this catastrophe. We all owe Gov. Greg Abbott a debt of gratitude for doing what the Biden administration wouldn't, but we also owe Texas a monetary debt. Now the bill is due: it's time for the federal government to pay Texas taxpayers back. From the moment he arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, President Biden reversed the previous administration's successful immigration policies: he ended President Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy; directed DHS to halt construction of the border wall, instead using federal funds to store wall materials; and ended Title 42, the COVID-era policy that was our last line of defense against the migrant surge. TRUMP'S DESIGNATION OF CARTELS AS TERRORISTS ENDS THE FICTION THAT MEXICO IS A TRUSTWORTHY ALLY President Biden oversaw a crisis on our southern border that far surpassed illegal migration numbers from prior decades. In Biden's four years, CBP encountered over 10 million illegal immigrants. More than 1.7 million known gotaways evaded Border Patrol entirely and are freely roaming somewhere in the interior of our country. Hundreds of thousands of Americans died from overdose of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, a drug manufactured with Chinese precursor chemicals and smuggled through our open border by drug cartels. Innocent Americans such as Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray died at the hands of illegal migrant criminals. Despite the immigration authorities that were already available to President Biden, he threw up his hands, claiming that there was nothing more he could do – all while his Homeland Security secretary reassured the public that the border was "secure." But facts don't lie. The whole world knew America's borders were wide open. This tragic crisis was felt most acutely in Texas. My state shares the longest border with Mexico, and with the president missing in action in the midst of a disaster, Gov. Abbott had to intervene. IF WE CAN'T DEPORT ILLEGALS, HERE'S HOW WE CAN MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO STAY Under Operation Lone Star, Texas law enforcement apprehended over half a million illegal immigrants, including more than 50,000 criminal arrests. They built more than 240 miles of border barriers, seized over half a billion deadly doses of fentanyl and reduced illegal immigration into Texas by 87%, according to the governor. However, these efforts cost upwards of $11 billion, a pretty penny for Texans to pay for the basic safety and security that the federal government owes its people. If there is any lingering question that President Biden's policies are to blame for the mess we saw at our southern border, consider President Trump's swift success in reversing the damage. As soon he was elected and even before he took office, the migrant flows began to subside. In the first two weeks of 2025, CBP encounters were nearly 50% lower than they were at the same point in 2021, at the start of the Biden administration. In President Trump's first 100 days in office, daily border encounters decreased by 95%. I REPRESENT A BORDER DISTRICT THAT WAS SWAMPED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. WHAT I'M SEEING NOW MIGHT SURPRISE YOU This dramatic sea change resulted from President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's commonsense policies. On day one, President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. He ended President Biden's "catch and release" policy and reinstated his own tried-and-tested "Remain in Mexico" policy. ICE arrests have increased by more than 600%, while arrests of criminal migrants have doubled. The Trump administration's policies are a welcome change from the past four years of disaster under the Biden administration. But the damage Texas experienced and the financial sacrifice we made for the good of the country must be fully repaid. The federal government under President Biden created this crisis, and Congress must rectify it. Texans have had to bear the brunt of open borders, rampant crime and deadly fentanyl for four years, costing the state billions of dollars to fill in for our absentee commander in chief. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION In late January, Gov. Abbott asked Congress to reimburse Texas for the $11.1 billion that Texas taxpayers spent. I immediately began working in partnership with President Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Texas Republicans in the House, to ensure Congress fulfills this request through the reconciliation bill, also known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill." Texas Republicans make up the largest Republican delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives; thus the speaker could not pass a bill without support from this key voting bloc. It was unacceptable that the initial text of the legislation released by the House did not reimburse Texas. But thanks to coordinating efforts with Congressman Chip Roy, R-Texas, language to reimburse states like Texas was added to the legislation during the amendment process, and the House passed these provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The next hurdle is to shepherd our reimbursement provisions through the Senate. I will continue working with Leader Thune, Gov. Abbott and President Trump to ensure the Senate includes even stronger language in the One Big Beautiful Bill and that Texas specifically will be rightfully repaid for Operation Lone Star. I will continue fighting to ensure this language remains in the final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill that will go to the president's desk. The road to victory is long, but if there's one thing us Texans know how to do it's to stay the course and defy the odds. President Biden abdicated his responsibility as commander in chief at the southern border. It's now up to Congress to reverse the damage and make Texas taxpayers whole. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM SEN. JOHN CORNYN Print Close URL
a day ago
Guatemalan man deported to Mexico returns to US after court order
A Guatemalan man deported to Mexico, whom President Donald Trump's administration was working to bring back after a court order, landed in the United States on Wednesday, his attorneys confirmed. The man, identified in court documents by initials O.C.G., landed in California via a commercial flight and made contact with his legal team while waiting in line to go through U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Trina Realmuto of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance. He was later taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was being transported to a detention facility in Arizona, she said in an email to The Associated Press. The Trump administration said in court filings last month that it was working to bring him back after he was deported to Mexico, despite his fears of being harmed there, days after a federal judge ordered the administration to facilitate his return. The U.S. Department of Justice didn't immediately respond to a request for comments and details from the AP. The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to his home country under a U.S. immigration judge's order at the time. But the U.S. put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead, a removal that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy found likely 'lacked any semblance of due process.' Mexico later returned him to Guatemala, where he was in hiding, according to court documents. In a court filing before his return, government lawyers said that a so-called significant public benefit parole packet had been approved. The designation allows people who aren't eligible to enter the U.S. to do so temporarily, often for reasons related to law enforcement or legal proceedings. An earlier court proceeding had determined that the man risked persecution or torture if returned to Guatemala. But he also feared returning to Mexico, where he says he was raped and extorted while seeking asylum in the U.S., according to court documents. 'As far as we know, it is the first time since January 20 that (Department of Homeland Security) has facilitated return following a district court order,' Realmuto said. The case is among a string of findings by federal courts against recent Trump administration deportations. Those have included other deportations to third countries and the erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran man who had lived in Maryland for roughly 14 years. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. from a notorious Salvadoran prison, rejecting the White House's claim that it couldn't retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him. Both the White House and the El Salvadoran president have said they are powerless to return him.
a day ago
Guatemalan man deported to Mexico returns to US after court orders Trump administration to do so
A Guatemalan man deported to Mexico, whom President Donald Trump's administration was working to bring back after a court order, landed in the United States on Wednesday, his attorneys confirmed. The man, identified in court documents by initials O.C.G., landed in California via a commercial flight and made contact with his legal team while waiting in line to go through U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Trina Realmuto of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance. He was later taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was being transported to a detention facility in Arizona, she said in an email to The Associated Press. The Trump administration said in court filings last month that it was working to bring him back after he was deported to Mexico, despite his fears of being harmed there, days after a federal judge ordered the administration to facilitate his return. The U.S. Department of Justice didn't immediately respond to a request for comments and details from the AP. The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to his home country under a U.S. immigration judge's order at the time. But the U.S. put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead, a removal that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy found likely 'lacked any semblance of due process.' Mexico later returned him to Guatemala, where he was in hiding, according to court documents. In a court filing before his return, government lawyers said that a so-called significant public benefit parole packet had been approved. The designation allows people who aren't eligible to enter the U.S. to do so temporarily, often for reasons related to law enforcement or legal proceedings. An earlier court proceeding had determined that the man risked persecution or torture if returned to Guatemala. But he also feared returning to Mexico, where he says he was raped and extorted while seeking asylum in the U.S., according to court documents. 'As far as we know, it is the first time since January 20 that (Department of Homeland Security) has facilitated return following a district court order,' Realmuto said. The case is among a string of findings by federal courts against recent Trump administration deportations. Those have included other deportations to third countries and the erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran man who had lived in Maryland for roughly 14 years. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. from a notorious Salvadoran prison, rejecting the White House's claim that it couldn't retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him. Both the White House and the El Salvadoran president have said they are powerless to return him.
