Counterfeit handbags seen at a warehouse in Vu Ban District, northern Nam Dinh Province on March 17, 2021. (Photo courtesy of the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance)

The value of the products, found in Nam Dinh Province’s Wednesday, is estimated at around 260,000 USD.

Police and other forces had to use 10 trucks to transport the seized goods, consisting mostly of handbags. They said this was the biggest storage of such goods found in northern Vietnam after a six-month investigation.

The sellers, unable to prove the origins of these products, mostly distributed the goods via social media, using dozens of Facebook accounts to evade authorities.

A spokesperson of French luxury clothing and accessories brand Hermès said that it conducts no sales on social media or e-commerce websites in Vietnam. It only has two official stores for handbags in the country, one in Hanoi and the other in Ho Chi Minh City.