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Greater Manchester Police said officers had closed down 18 shops in Manchester’s Cheetham Hill and Strangeways areas in a two-week period.
It said it found “dilapidated”, rat-infested buildings with “dangerous homemade electricity, hidden weapons and [no] proper means of escape”.
The force said the seized items would be repurposed or recycled.
Insp Andy Torkington said officers had been “relentlessly targeting these illegitimate shops, but we are aware of the few remaining units who are attempting to operate in the area”.
“We will be targeting these premises imminently and our investigations will continue as we seek out and arrest those involved,” he said.
He said the force was “seeing excellent progress in the area” and the feedback from the public had been “overwhelmingly supportive, but there is still more to be done”.
He said the latest raids were part of “five months of relentless action”, but “criminality” had been embedded in the area “for decades” so more needed to be done.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-65225192

Hyderabad: West Zone Task Force police have busted a gang involved in manufacturing and selling fake food and other general store items of popular brands in Hyderabad.
Police have arrested four people so far. They have been identified as Ajay Kumar Bhure (30), who works at Jayalaxmi Transport, Attapur, Syed Imran (24), in charge of the warehouse at Katedan, Premraj Purohit (34) of Nimboliadda, and Premraj Purohith (32) of Afzalganj are distributors.
The gang leaders Kamal Bhati (46) of Kachiguda and Mahender Singh Rathore are still at large.
According to West Zone Task Force DCP Radha Kishan Rao, on credible information, they apprehended four people and seized goods worth Rs. 16 lakh.
The seized items included fake Parachute hair oil, Red label tea powder, Colgate Paste, Good Night Liquid, Head & Shoulders Shampoo, labels, boxes, stickers, empty bottles, packing boxes, and other items used in the preparation and adulteration of the items.
https://newsmeter.in/hyderabad/hyderabad-police-bust-gang-involved-selling-food-items-popular-brands-4-held-710476

Bengaluru: Almost a week since the announcement of the model code of conduct (MCC) on March 29, Election Commission officials have seized cash, goods, liquor and drugs worth Rs 47 crore in several parts of Karnataka.
This apart, flying squad teams have seized Rs 30 lakh in Bengaluru’s Chickpet and another Rs 43 lakh in Bailhongal constituency of Belagavi district.
According to an official release by Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, until Monday, police, income tax officials and other squads have cumulatively seized Rs 13 crore in cash from various assembly constituencies. Besides, the excise department has seized 2.8 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 16 crore. Drugs worth Rs 41 lakh and freebies worth Rs 10.8 crore have also been recovered. Other seizures include 13kg of gold worth Rs 6.7 crore and 88kg of silver worth Rs 64 lakh. Following these raids, 316 FIRs have been registered. Arms licences of seven persons have been cancelled and arms of 10 persons impounded.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/cash-goods-worth-47cr-seized-in-less-than-a-week/articleshow/99227678.cms?from=mdr

Bottles of illegal liquor wrapped properly in a white shroud, instead of a dead body, were found inside an ambulance on its way to Bihar’s Muzaffarpur from Jharkhand’s Ranchi. The State excise department officials, though, were not surprised by the collection of spirits inside a coffin as they earlier had received a tip-off of the liquor smuggling.
The excise officials on Monday seized as many as 212 IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor) bottles, amounting to nearly 159 litres, from the ambulance near Dheerja bridge on the Bihar-Jharkhand border.
Two persons, driver Lalit Kumar Mahto of Ranchi and Pankaj Yadav of the Chatra district, in Jharkhand, were inside the ambulance. When the excise officials started searching the ambulance, they told them that a dead body was inside the coffin and even let the officials speak to the grieving family members. They also produced a death certificate to the excise officials, but the date of the death written on the certificate was mismatched.
On the same day on March 27, a huge consignment of liquor bottles worth lakhs of rupees was seized from inside a septic tank in the Saharsa district, while a day after, hundreds of liquor bottles were recovered from a graveyard in the Vaishali district. Every day, smugglers of illegal liquor in dry Bihar dig out new ways to ferry bottles into the State.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/liquor-bottles-seized-from-coffin-inside-an-ambulance-in-bihar/article66671834.ece

Imphal: A fake liquor manufacturing unit was busted in Manipur’s Thoubal district on Sunday, police said.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house in the Khongjam area and seized a huge quantity of fake Indian Made Foreign Liquors (IMFL), they said.
“Empty bottles and materials used in packaging were also recovered,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Jogeshchandra Haobijam.
The fake liquors were made by concocting chemicals, he said.
Police are on the lookout for the owner of the house, Bobo Singh, and have detained two members of his family for questioning, he added.
https://www.eastmojo.com/manipur/2023/03/27/fake-liquor-manufacturing-unit-busted-in-manipurs-thoubal/

Breaking News: DRI has arrested three for smuggling euros and dirhams at the Mumbai airport. The smugglers were from Dubai. Three have been arrested for smuggling Rs. 1.45 crore. Fake currency has been seized at the Mumbai airport.
Smugglers from Dubai have been busted. 1 crore worth of fake currency has been seized by the DRI. More than 50,000 are euros, and 45,000 are UAE dirhams. In total, it was around Rs. 1.46 crore. The three arrested people were trying to smuggle it to Dubai. They were intercepted at the Mumbai international airport, and they were produced in court.
The three persons have been identified as Amit Kumar, Bheem Singh, and Vikramjeet Singh. They all hail from Haryana. The trio was holding the entire amount of fake currency in the bank trolley at the airport.
https://www.timesnownews.com/videos/mirror-now/crime/breaking-news-dri-arrest-three-for-smuggling-1-45-crore-worth-fake-currency-at-mumbai-airport-video-99036745

Customs officers in Virginia have confiscated more than $700,000 of designer brand counterfeits, including clothing, purses and shoes, in a single shipment.
Customs officers originally examined the shipment on February 3, according to the news release. The shipment originated in Seoul, South Korea, and was sent to an address in Chesapeake, Virginia.
The load had 68 items with designer brand trademarks, including iconic luxury brands like Burberry, Chanel, Christian Dior, Gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent, according to the release.
But customs officers suspected the goods were counterfeit, and submitted documentation of the items to Customs trade experts specializing in apparel, footwear and textiles.
The experts confirmed the goods were fakes with “infringing trademarks and copyrights,” says the release.
The goods would have been worth $708,097 if they had been real, according to the release.
An investigation into the shipment is ongoing and no one has been criminally charged, US Customs and Border Protection reported.
“Unscrupulous vendors illegally profit on the backs, and feet, of American consumers by peddling phony and potentially perilous products as authentic goods,” said Mark Laria, Customs’ area port director for the area port of Norfolk-Newport News, in the release. “CBP strongly encourages consumers to protect their families by purchasing authentic goods from reputable vendors.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/27/us/virginia-customs-seizes-counterfeits-trnd/index.html