Counterfeit bust in Newport News

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - According to Newport News Police Spokeswoman, Holly McPherson, for the third time in three years Newport News Police raided and shut down another store in Peddler's Village for selling counterfeit merchandise. McPherson says Hyun Kim is the manager of Kelly Fashion and was arrested on July 1, at the time of the raid.

"As we ran in the search warrant, we actually found two vans full of counterfeit tennis shoes that was parked out front of Peddler's Village," says Newport News Master Police Detective Lorain Crain.

Crain says $340,000 worth of counterfeit merchandise, including clothing, was seized during the raid.  She says they learned of this counterfeit merchandise just three months after their last raid on Peddler's Village in 2008.

"Actually the people that we had arrested from the previous operation actually were calling up and saying, 'Hey, I'm complying. Why are they not complying?' "

Crain tells WAVY.com, the target of July 1st's raid was Kelly Fashion.  Hyun Kim was arrested for allegedly being an illegal immigrant from Korea and running the store.  This wasn't the first time police came across Kim in Peddler's Village.

WAVY.com was there in March of 2007 when a raid there uncovered two million dollars in stolen merchandise. Crain says that's when investigators first met Kim.

"At this time, he was off the radar with ICE and it wasn't until we did a complete check on him we found out he was actually illegal," Crain said.

WAVY.com spoke with Peddler's Village owner U.T. Brown who says his job is to rent the space, but he can't control who runs the stores.

"We rent the store in there by the month, but we don't have anything to do with what they buy or what they sell or don't sell," says Brown.

"It's kind of ridiculous to just think that you can keep on doing these illegal things and get away with it," says Willie Kelly.

Kelly lives across the street from Peddler's Village and he's upset counterfeit goods are supposedly sold so close to his home. Crain says residents should be upset.

"It hurts the tax base that's coming in. It's actually been liked in one case to Al Qaeda which is part of the terrorism."

Because of that, and this being the third raid on Peddler's Village in three years, Detective Crain says this shouldn't happen anymore.

"I'm actually looking to cease and desist the activity and it would be all determined as to the City attorney or the Commonwealth's Attorney as to what action they want to do," Crain said.

WAVY.com called the Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney about the investigation into possibly closing Peddler's Village, but we were told, "No Comment" by Deputy Commonwealth Attorney Valerie Muth.

Crain says Kim lives in Yorktown on Pageland Drive. She says the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is involved in the investigation.

On March 16, 2007, three locations throughout the city were raided, 11 search warrants were executed and approximately $2 million worth of counterfeit merchandise was seized, McPherson told WAVY.com. Then on August 27, 2008, 23 businesses inside Peddler's Village were raided for counterfeit merchandise and approximately $2 million worth of merchandise was seized. During that operation, 10 individuals were arrested.

Kim is being held in the Newport News City Jail and faces felony charges of selling counterfeit merchandise and he faces deportation, according to Crain.