U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is charged with protecting the United States from threats crossing international borders. Besides physical threats from terrorism, drug trafficking and weapons of mass destruction, the men and women in blue protect American consumers and industry from intellectual property violations and counterfeit goods.

In this case, an estimated 70,000 fake GLOCK ammunition magazines were seized upon inspection at the Savannah Port of Entry. With a value of around $2M USD, this was no small haul. Both shooters/consumers and GLOCK were protected from fictitious product entering the market.

Not only could the magazines pose a safety hazard to GLOCK customers, but the GLOCK brand itself could suffer if shooters buy what they think are substandard original magazines.

I scoured the internet looking for previous examples of counterfeit GLOCK gear. Most of what I found were previous generations of factory made magazines or legitimate KCI made magazines.

If any of you are dreaming of grabbing some cheap counterfeit magazines, it’s not worth it. Spend the extra five or ten dollars and save yourself the headache.

Counterfeit Glock Magazines

U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Savannah Port of Entry inspected a container of manifested firearm magazines and discovered 591 cartons of pistol magazines bearing the Glock trademark.

The importation of the magazines with the Glock trademark on the packaging was found to be unauthorized and in violation of the registered trademark, said Mark Varga, CBP spokesman.

The company was given the opportunity to make alterations. However, alterations were not completed and the shipment was seized for violation of the Glock trademark.

The pistol magazines have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $ 2.1 million.

“Counterfeiting is often viewed as a victimless crime. The theft of intellectual property and the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods threatens America’s innovation based economy, the competitiveness of the nation’s businesses, the livelihoods of U.S. workers, and, in some cases, national security and the health and safety of American consumers.” said Lisa Beth Brown, Area Port Director, Savannah. “Seizures like this keep those goods out of the American supply chain—protecting our economy and consumers from potentially harmful products.”