China is taking its penchant for piracy to new levels.
A ring of underground workshops producing millions of counterfeit, brand-name condoms was busted by police in the Asian nation this week.
Fake Durex, Contex, Jissbon and other brand-name prophylactics were apparently being produced – up to 4.69 million of them, officials say.
In a dimly lit room in southeast China’s Fujian province, dozens of workers were on a production line, lubricating the condoms, when cops arrived.
The floor was piled high with the contraceptives, and according to police, and the stench of the cheap oil lubricants was described as nauseating.
The racket was exposed when a policeman noticed that a store on Taobao (dot) com, China’s popular online shopping site, was selling ridiculously low-priced condoms.
He bought a few to test, and they proved to be fakes.
The police then traced the fake products from the online store to a network of underground workshops. A total of 37 arrests have been made so far.
One of the ring’s two bosses, surnamed Liu, reportedly started his business last December, buying raw latex from a factory in Hebei, then adding cheap lubricants.
Packaging his counterfeit condoms in bags and boxes bearing well-known brand names, he cranked out about 20,000 fake, dirt-cheap rubbers per day.
His retail price? About 16 cents each.
Liu said condoms produced in his workshops were mostly sold on the internet, and through small vendors, supermarkets, pharmacies and rural sex toy stores.
About a month ago, Britain’s Guardian reported that Ghana was facing a “major public health issue” after a million of the condoms turned up there.