Storage wars, Shrewsbury edition: $11.3M in counterfeit goods recovered from unit

Shrewsbury police seized an estimated $11.3 million in counterfeit products including handbags, cologne, and shoes from a storage unit last month.

Officers discovered the unit full of merchandise while responding to a report of multiple gunshots in the area of Holden and Bow streets on June 17 around 2:30 p.m., police noted in a release on Tuesday. While investigating the report of gunshots, police searched the area including the property of Extra Space Storage, a facility at 53 Clinton St., where they noticed multiple vehicles and one person in front of a storage unit.

Officers entered the storage unit and “observed what appeared to be thousands of items of merchandise,” police said. “The merchandise was neatly displayed on shelves, tables and boxes, and laid out in a manner similar to how they would be displayed in a retail store for sale.”

Some of the items officers saw included “handbags, sunglasses, hats, shoes, clothing, backpacks, cologne, phone cases, earbuds, and umbrellas” from brands such as “Rolex, Gucci, Prada, Luis Vuitton, Chanel, Nike, and North Face,” according to police.

Officers also noticed that the interior wall of three adjoining units were removed to create one large usable space, police said.

Police secured search warrants for the storage units, as well as for two vehicles at the scene.

Powers and Associates in Mattapoisett — representing more than 60 trademark holders for the purpose of identifying manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers of counterfeit products — provided assistance with the investigation at no cost to Shrewsbury, police said.

In total, police confiscated 16,644 items of evidence from three storage units at an estimated value of $11.3 million, plus 19 items from the two vehicles searched, which were worth an estimated $44,920, authorities said.

An investigation remains ongoing with police noting that they are still working to identify suspects.