Hong Kong customs has seized 120,000 suspected counterfeit items in a month-long operation that targeted cross-border transshipments during a major online shopping festival in mainland China, confiscating goods including fake Gucci handbags, Hermes shoes and latest iPhone models.

The Customs and Excise Department revealed on Friday that it conducted a special enforcement operation between October 20 and November 14, during which it solved 29 cases and seized counterfeit goods worth an estimated HK$65 million (US$8.3 million).

“During the ‘Double 11’ shopping festival, with its massive transaction volume, criminals attempted to exploit the anonymity of online transactions to mix counterfeit goods with legitimate e-commerce products, hoping to smuggle them in or out of Hong Kong,” said Senior Inspector Liu Wai-kit of customs’ intellectual property transnational investigation division.