Police raid market in Charlotte Hall

Haul of items seized from booths worth $640,000

Friday, June 27, 2008

Saturday’s sweep through the farmers market along Route 5 followed a similar enforcement action the day before at the ‘‘Keep It Real” clothing store on Great Mills Road. Maurice X. Queen, 35, of Lexington Park was released Friday on personal recognizance on charging papers alleging he offered for sale counterfeit Nike athletic shoes and clothes. Authorities estimated the retail value of the items seized at the store at more than $50,000.

Suspects arrested Saturday at the farmers market included three Charles County men and additional people from the Washington, D.C., area and New York City. Detectives said the biggest seizures of counterfeit items during the two-day operation investigation occurred at that location.

‘‘Approximately $640,000 [worth] was from the farmers market,” Lt. Rick Burris said.

On Monday, Ben Burroughs, the owner of the northern St. Mary’s landmark, said customers spotting counterfeit items are encouraged to report the matter to authorities.

‘‘We hand them a telephone to call the sheriff’s office immediately. We’ve been doing that since 1963,” Burroughs said. ‘‘If [the vendors] are doing anything illegal, they should be arrested. We don’t condone it.”

Burroughs, a former county sheriff, said merchants responding to advertising will call and visit the open-sided buildings and outdoor tables to consider renting them for the two days, Wednesdays and Saturdays, that the market is open. Vendors are required to get county trader’s licenses and state sales tax licenses, and enforcement is assisted through regular visits by the state comptroller’s office.

‘‘We cooperate with the tax people and give them a list of the people who deal with us,” Burroughs said.

The senior detective said it was the conduct of the vendors at the farmers market that was the focus of the enforcement effort.

‘‘It didn’t have anything to do with our investigation, who owned it,” Burris said. ‘‘We were looking specifically to the vendors who were selling the counterfeit items.”

In carrying out the raid, the lieutenant added, ‘‘We tried to keep this as low-key as possible. The majority of people there are legitimate vendors. We didn’t want to disrupt their operation.”

Waldorf residents Stephen D. Coates, 38, Robert E. Haynes, 33, and Louis D. Young, 30, were released Saturday on personal recognizance on charging papers alleging they were selling counterfeit items, ranging from shoes sold by Coates and Young to CDs sold by Haynes.

Burroughs said he has instructed his staff to tell vendors the consequences of selling counterfeit items.

‘‘Tell them all that when they do something illegal, that’s what happens to them,” he said.

The detectives from the Bureau of Criminal Investigations were assisted in a two-month probe and last week’s raids by Maryland State Police, sheriff’s patrol deputies, the state police Homeland Security and Intelligence Division, the sheriff’s corrections division, the Southern Maryland Information Center, the Recording Industry Association of America, motion picture industry representatives and authorities with the clothing and apparel industry.