MIAMI – The designer brands sold out of a downtown Miami storefront included Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Cartier and Prada, according to police. But detectives said while the luxury goods may have carried those labels, they were all phony.
That led Miami police, along with Miami-Dade police and Homeland Security Investigations, to conduct an undercover operation and arrest the father-son owners of the business, arrest reports state. Police said they recovered about $3 million worth of fake merchandise.
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Authorities arrested Giovanni Tummolillo Sr., 72, of North Bay Village, at Miami International Airport on Tuesday. Police had arrested his son, Giovanni Tummolillo Jr., 40, of El Portal, on Aug. 23.
Both the elder Tummolillo, an Italian national, and his son are facing five felony counts of selling counterfeit goods.
The investigation into their business, Leather Goods LLC, located in the historic Ingraham Building at 25 SE Second Ave., began in March.
Police said “one particular individual” of a group “gave information that counterfeit merchandise was being sold at the business.”
Authorities said, using an undercover informant, they conducted controlled buys of counterfeit luxury jewelry, handbags and other designer goods from the Tummolillos.
“The goods that are being sold appeared to be associated with well-known luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Fendi, Hermes, Gucci, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Prada, YSL, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, and Tiffany, to name a few,” police wrote. “To any ordinary and prudent person, these copies looked identical to any of the real products.”
Authorities said they executed a search warrant at the business on Aug. 23 and seized the $3 million in merchandise.
“During the recovery, manufacturing equipment and merchandise were discovered and identified by (a) trademark representative, who stated that those items are used to make counterfeit merchandise,” police wrote in the reports.
That same day, police also executed a search warrant at the elder Tumolillo’s apartment at The Lexi, a luxury North Bay Village condominium building located at 7901 Hispanola Ave. He wasn’t there at the time, police said.
Miami police would arrest Tummolillo Jr. in the area of Northeast First Avenue and 16th Street in the city’s Omni neighborhood.
They would later apprehend his father at MIA on Tuesday. Police didn’t state whether Tummolillo Sr. was trying to board a flight and, if so, where he was headed.
Tummolillo Sr. was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $12,500 bond as of Wednesday. Court records show that his son posted bond in the days following his arrest; his Miami-Dade jail booking photo was not immediately available.