NYPD seizes fake Labubu plushes in $150 million Chinatown raid

Fake Labubu plushes were among the goods NYPD officers hauled out of 12 Chinatown storefronts in a sweep that tied up an estimated $150 million in counterfeit merchandise and led to 17 arrests. The bags of bootlegs were so numerous they filled a flatbed police truck on Canal Street, and the Labubu knockoffs sat inside a larger mix of fake Rolex and Piguet watches, luxury sunglasses, bootleg Knicks apparel, jewelry, electronics and fragrances.

Missing packaging details, no scratch-off box-label code, no QR authenticity check and no clear provenance are warning signs. Pop Mart's THE MONSTERS line includes Labubu, sold through official retail channels in more than 23 countries and regions, with 350-plus offline stores and 2,000 Roboshops, giving buyers a real baseline to compare against the street-level knockoffs that moved through Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Kasing Lung’s Labubu became a global craze in 2024 after Rihanna, David Beckham and Kim Kardashian posted about it, and that viral demand has made cheap fakes easier to sell to people hunting for a quick deal. A plush with sloppy packaging, no verifiable code and a price that sits far below official channels should set off alarms before money changes hands.

In August 2025, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned that fake Labubu plush dolls, sometimes called Lafufu, can pose a serious choking hazard and may be small enough to fit in a child’s mouth.

The Chinatown operation came after a spike in complaints from residents and elected officials about illegal vending and counterfeit sales, and NYPD data show 311 complaints in the neighborhood had risen fourfold since 2025. Police had already seized an estimated $100 million in fake luxury goods since May 20, pushing the year-to-date total past $250 million after Thursday’s warrants.