ROME : Italian police said on Thursday they had seized more than 20,000 items of counterfeit Napoli merchandise as soccer fans in the southern city of Naples gear up to celebrate another Serie A title.
Vintage and current shirts in the blue of Napoli, shorts, scarves and caps were among the items seized in raids on the central Via Toledo and in the tightly packed Spanish Quarter, police said on Thursday. The goods seized had an estimated commercial value of over 300,000 euros ($340,000).
Police are investigating 18 people for alleged counterfeiting, receiving stolen goods and commercial fraud.
They include a 71-year-old man who had set up shop at the foot of the ‘Maradona Mural’ in the Spanish Quarter, a site that honours the former captain of Napoli and Argentina.
Poor quality items were being sold for 50 euros to fans and tourists.
Napoli have a one-point lead over Inter Milan and will be Italian champions for a fourth time if they beat Cagliari at home on Friday.
Soccer-mad Naples staged wild celebrations when the team won the title in 2023, their first scudetto since a golden era when Maradona led them to glory in 1987 and 1990.($1 = 0.8853 euros)
(Writing by Keith Weir, editing by Ed Osmond)
