A MAJOR international forgery ring has been smashed after two men tried to smuggle £1 million of goods from China into Blackburn.

And Lancashire Trading Standards seized a further £275,000 of fake jeans as a result of breaking the worldwide scheme.

Customs and Excise officers received a tip-off that two Blackburn men had met with contacts in Shanghai to buy labels, buttons, rivets and washing instruction tags.

When the men arrived at Manchester Airport, their packages were intercepted and stunned trading standards, police and customs officers found the hundreds of thousands of items, with an estimated street value of £1 million.

The goods, which bore leading fashion names like Armani, Calvin Klein and Versace, were taken out of boxes, which were then weighed down and re-sealed.

The men, driving two cars filled with the boxes, were followed from Manchester to a terraced house in the Whalley Range area of Blackburn.

A team of officers swooped on the address, where they found £25,000 of fake jeans.

They also discovered documents which led them to believe a factory in Preston was producing dud goods.

After obtaining a warrant, the team arrived to find a staggering £250,000 worth of fake denims.

Seven people have been arrested and released on bail as further inquiries continue. More arrests are expected in the next few days and charges under the Trade Marks Act of 1994, which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail, may be brought.

Trading Standards special investigations officer Tim Coglan, said: "This is the biggest seizure of fakes we've ever had in Lancashire.

"We're extremely pleased that we've broken a major international counterfeiting operation. We've got mountains of the stuff.

"We believe that about £10,000 was paid for the goods we found at Manchester Airport, yet the value on the street would be £1 million. Everything you need to make cheap denim look like designer gear was in there. People involved with fakes should be warned that we are winning the war against them and will continue to do so."

About £4 million of counterfeit clothing is produced in Lancashire each year.

Blackburn accounts for most of the figure, with £1.5 million designer duds being made.

Last month £16,000 of fake Levi jeans were seized from a factory in the Audley area of Blackburn.

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