Customs seized €209 million worth of counterfeit goods between 2015 and 2000, it said in a statement.

The items ranged from clothing to footwear, wallets, bags, sports items, accessories, mobile phones, electronics, cosmetics, hair products, toothpaste and brushes, washing powder, dog collars, auto parts and accessories, toys, pens, feed additives, face masks, gas cylinder seals, pharmaceuticals, and candy.

The single largest seizure over that five-year period was a €64m confiscation of footwear made in 2020.

That was Customs' most productive year over the five-year period: while the number of items seized was roughly comparable to that in 2019, the value of those items was more than double that of the previous year.

 
With over 2.4 million seized articles, Malta placed third among EU states after Germany (4.7 million articles) and Greece (2.6 million articles). 

Apart from counterfeit goods, Customs officials also seized billions of euro worth in other items. They included seizures of Tramadol pills worth €1.2 billion, sanctions-busting goods worth €927 million and narcotics worth €179.2 million, among others. 

The department has been disseminating all the information pertaining to the seizures to foreign counterparts and investigative institutions.