From the Patapsco Flea Market website and presumably not part of the DHS sting Patapsco Flea Market Accused of building terror cases where none may exist, and armed with its newly increased $43.2 billion dollar 2012 budget, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is tackling another threat to the American way of life — the flea market.

Hanah Cho at The Baltimore Sun reports the DHS says the Patapsco Flea Market had a long and colorful history of selling counterfeit goods, and after a 2.5 year investigation DHS swooped in and shut it down (via Drudge).

Federal authorities are not releasing any information about the raid, but Cho dug up some affidavits that outlined several undercover operations saying "many of the items sold at the flea market were fake."

From the Sun:

It is a practice that deprives companies of revenue as well as debases the quality of brand names, said Ned T. Himmelrich, who heads the intellectual property and technology practice group at Baltimore law firm Gordon Feinblatt LLC. Companies have been working with federal authorities to crack down on the illegal activity, he said.



"It's more than just the one sale or a thousand sales," he said. "It's the ripple effect on the quality of the brand."

The affidavits also point to pirated DVDs and music recordings as part of the raid. So between the Megaupload shutdown and now the flea market crackdown, it looks like Americans are going to have to get more creative with how they buy their counterfeit goods.



