The government of U.S announced on Wednesday the confiscation of 11 million imitation N95 masks that arrived from China and were intended for health or emergency personnel.

The Secretary of National Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, detailed in a press conference that the masks were confiscated in several operations in recent weeks in five different states of the country.

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The latest, hundreds of thousands, in a seizure this Wednesday in a warehouse in an East Coast state that it did not report as it was an operation still underway.

He also said that further seizures are expected in the coming weeks.

The masks bore the logo of the American multinational 3M, which was precisely the one who put DHS investigators on the trail of the fake network by denouncing that fake products were reaching health workers.

“We are at a vulnerable time, of course, with the pandemic that is costing so many lives and causing so much damage. And that people, criminals, exploit our vulnerabilities to earn quick money is something we will aggressively pursue “Mayorkas said.

“Not only do they give a false sense of security,” Mayorkas added in reference to the masks, “but how dangerous is it for the exposed person? How dangerous is it for the individual facing a possible COVID-19 infection without any protective equipment?

For his part, Kevin Rhodes, a 3M executive, told CNBC that this operation “has helped prevent thousands of copycat respirators from reaching emergency workers.”

DHS reported that it has notified 6,000 possible victims of the counterfeit ring in 12 states, including hospitals and other medical facilities.

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