The problem continues to grow as gangs and other criminal organizations continue to realize that trademark counterfeiting, piracy and other intellectual property crimes present great opportunities to make lots of quick easy cash.
These criminals
see the opportunities
and they quickly
jump on them.
There is no
shortage of willing
consumers to buy
the latest knock
off handbag or
pirated music CD
and the gangsters
know it.
The LAPD
and FBI recently
arrested a gang
member from Florencia
13. The gangster,
known as “Flaco”
had already been
arrested and prosecuted
by local authorities
once, but like
many others he
was lured back
to the counterfeit
trade because of the large easy
profits.
Flaco was federally
prosecuted and
convicted. He will
serve time in
federal prison and
then he will
likely be receiving
a free ride
outside of the
United States as he was
not in the
USA legally.
The public
needs to be
educated that the
profits from the
sales of counterfeit
goods are going
to gangs, such
as Florencia 13,
MS 13, 18TH Street,
The Bloods, The
Crips, and the Mexican Mafia.
We applaud the
outstanding efforts to
address the problem
on intellectual property
crimes as it
is not always
seen as a
serious crime, however
those that are
in the “know”
understand how serious
these crimes really
are and how
these crimes are
a major source
to gangs, organized
crimes groups, and
terrorist organizations.
Kris Buckner, Investigative Consultants
