Police seize 140,000 litres of counterfeit motor oil in Riga

Latvian State Police are seeking charges against two men over the large-scale distribution of counterfeit motor oil produced at an industrial facility in Riga, LSM reported.

The oil was manufactured alongside legitimate products and falsely labelled as brands including GM, Mobil 1, Castrol and Ford Motorcraft. It was supplied to and sold in shops in Italy.

Police discovered the counterfeit production on January 27 last year during a search of industrial premises in Riga. Officers seized 140,000 litres of counterfeit motor oil, a mechanical line for producing plastic bottles, bottle moulds, packaging, samples of empty containers and packaging with caps.

The investigation found that the counterfeiting, production and distribution outside Latvia were organised by two people: the beneficial owner of a company registered in Latvia, born in 1982, and a company employee, born in 1983. Neither had previously come to the attention of police.

Authorities said both Latvian citizens and people from countries outside the European Union had been hired to produce the oil. The affected companies suffered losses of approximately 282,289 euros.