When he finally reached Menelik, the King seized the merchandise and forced him to liquidate the caravan at a ruinously low price.
She added that the company is addressing the issue of street vendors through targeted civil seizure orders, and is working closely with Customs to seize counterfeit merchandise.
"I asked, 'Who owns the copyright, a leopard?' " Mr. Titov's later investigation confirmed the police had colluded with a competitor to seize the merchandise under the pretext of a criminal case, so it could be sold for a profit.
"Menelik seized all the merchandise and forced me to let him have it at a reduced rate, forbidding me to sell it retail and threatening to send it back to the coast at my expense!" Rimbaud complained in a letter to the French consul.
Those found to be breaking the rules could have merchandise seized or be fined up to £20,000 if convicted.
Fake watches are the fourth most common type of counterfeit merchandise seized, agents said.
In some cases, Sotomayor went on-site with the police to Harlem or Chinatown to have illegitimate merchandise seized, in the latter instance pursuing a fleeing culprit while riding on a motorcycle.
Police officers and city inspectors routinely turn a blind eye to street vending until there is a crackdown, and sellers see their carts and merchandise seized and sometimes destroyed — illegally, according to civil rights groups that filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the city violated sellers' constitutional rights by taking their property without due process.
It is not just security at the game that the N.F.L. is concerned with, as the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that a raid of fake merchandise had seized more than $4.8 million in fake N.F.L. merchandise and shut down 307 Web sites over the last few months.
The tribe also asked for a restraining order against the state that would allow it to sell tax-free tobacco and force the state to return merchandise it seized.
Earlier this year, Ms. Alvarez's office helped push through an amendment to the state's criminal code that raises penalties for organized retail theft, broadens the definition of what qualifies as an incriminating statement from suspects, and empowers authorities to seize cash and merchandise from professional shoplifters and fencing operations.
