High-profit margins in counterfeit goods were attracting organised criminals away from traditional crime, such as robbery and hijacking, a senior detective said yesterday.
A conference heard there was both terrorist and organised crime involvement in the global trade in counterfeit goods, and there was evidence to show that members of al-Qaeda raised funds through selling illegally copied goods.
Det Supt Pat Brehony, of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI), was addressing a conference in Dublin on counterfeiting and measures designed to combat the growing trend.
Supt Brehony said there was a "growing epidemic" of counterfeiting in Ireland involving goods ranging from alcohol to clothes, perfume, jewellery and software.
The upsurge in theft of computer parts in the mid-1990s had prompted the Garda to set up a computer crime unit in 1997, when an estimated €8.3 million worth of equipment was stolen. This has now been reduced to the point where only some €630,000 worth of computer equipment was stolen last year.
Organised criminals were now increasingly turning to counterfeiting involving the theft of intellectual copyright. The anti-racketeering unit in the NCBI estimated that 13 per cent in value of seized contraband in 2000 involved counterfeit CDs and DVDs.
He called for greater co-operation between manufacturers, trade groups, Government and law enforcement agencies to tackle the growing problem.
A Customs investigator with the Revenue Commissioners said there has been a sharp rise in seizures of counterfeit goods in the past three years.
These included a range of fashion goods and "sports" clothing manufactured in Pakistan, mobile phone covers manufactured in China and watches made in Malaysia. All represented losses to the manufacturers and to the Exchequer.
Mr John Anderson, executive secretary of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group which organised the conference in the offices of A & L Goodbody Solicitors, said both terrorist and organised crime groups were behind much of the counterfeiting. Members of the al-Qaeda which carried out the first bomb attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993 raised funds through selling counterfeit T- shirts from a stall in Canal Street, Dublin.