The real cost of fake goods: some of the profits from counterfeiting support criminal activities, and even terrorism.

• Author: Thomas, Dana
• Position: OPINION

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Fashion is easy to copy: Counterfeiters buy the real items, take them apart, scan the pieces to make patterns, and produce almost-perfect imitations. According to the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group in Paris, at least 11 percent of the world's clothing is fake.

As soon as a handbag from Prada, Louis Vuitton, or Gucci hits big, counterfeiters around the globe churn out fakes by the thousands. And they have no trouble selling them. Shoppers descend on Canal Street in New York, Santee Alley in Los Angeles, and flea markets around the country to pick up fakes for one-tenth the legitimate bag's retail cost.

Most people think that buying fake goods is harmless. But counterfeiting rackets are run by crime syndicates that also deal in narcotics, weapons, child prostitution, human trafficking, and terrorism. Ronald K. Noble, the Secretary General of Interpol. (the international police organization), says that sates of counterfeit goods have helped finance groups associated with Hezbollah, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group; paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland; and a leftist guerrilla group in Colombia.

Sales of counterfeit T-shirts may have helped finance the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to the International Anti-counterfeiting Coalition. "Profits from counterfeiting are one of the three main sources of income supporting international terrorism," says Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the University of St. Andrews in...