The Customs Service employees in 2012 destroyed 80,000 units of counterfeit goods. The cosmetics, hygiene and pharmaceutical products are forged most often, Info-Prim Neo reports. Adrian Morarescu, division head at the Customs Service, told a news conference that until 2012 in Moldova there were only two specialists who monitored the import of counterfeit goods. Now there is a whole division. The forged merchandise is sometimes discovered as a result of a simple suspicion. In such cases, there is performed a thorough check. If the products are original, they are put into circulation. If not, they are confiscated and destroyed. The goods can be also donated. However, 95% of the confiscated merchandise is destroyed. There are cases when the counterfeit goods are not destroyed. This happens when the producers of the original brands do not ask destroying the goods. In such cases, the goods enter the home market and the responsibility for withdrawing them from circulation is borne by the police. Elena Paladi, head of the Customs Service’s Intellectual Property Protection Division, said the domestic market was invalidated by counterfeit massage devices that pose electrocution threats and may have negative effects on the internal organs. The Chisinau markets are full of forged perfumes that can cause allergies and skin diseases. The punishment for importing counterfeit goods is administrative or criminal. If the confiscated goods are worth more than 50,000 lei, there are started criminal cases and imposed jail punishments, depending on the gravity of the offense. When the value of the goods is under 50,000 lei, the smugglers are fined up to 5,000 lei. Six criminal cases over the import of contraband worth over 50,000 lei were initiated last year. The punishment is up to 5 years’ imprisonment.