Major counterfeit smartphone bust in NYC worth $7M

NEW YORK (WABC) -- There was a major counterfeit bust on the streets of Brooklyn Thursday night worth millions of dollars.

Thursday night, detectives and federal agents carted out box after box of merchandise.

There were thousands of smartphones with a street value, up to $7 million.

And all of them were fake!

"These products are dangerous. They are not what the manufacturer produced in a safe manner," said Chief Brian McCarthy, NYPD Criminal Enterprise Division.

They first caught the eye of customs officers at Kennedy airport, who spotted the shipments arriving from China.

That led to a nine month joint investigation involving Homeland Security investigations, Customs and Border Protection and the NYPD.

Thursday night, they've raided two locations in Brooklyn, including a makeshift warehouse; its windows were papered over, on Coney Island Avenue.

It was there, investigators say, that independent cell phone dealers would buy the black market phones, and then resell them to unknowing consumers.

Some of the devices look so legit; investigators relied on experts to figure out for sure that they were fake.