Canal Street knock-off vendors back with vengeance just weeks after dramatic ICE raid: Theyre not afraid
Canal Street in Chinatown is once again awash in a sea of illegal vendors hawking knock-off designer bags, electronics and jewelry less than a month after ICE dramatically cleared the area and made arrests.The Post caught dozens of the brazen illicit peddlers on video when they were out in full force — with the holiday season fast approaching — Friday before NYPD cops descended on them, sending the Manhattan scofflaws fleeing.Then Sunday, fewer than two days later, there were as many as 100 of the rogue sellers back at it pushing counterfeit goods laid out on blankets on the sidewalk between Lafayette and Center streets, some attracting long lines of customers looking to get their hands on an imitation Chanel bag or iPhone.But while the threat of police and even immigration crackdowns hasn’t been enough to curb the pesky curbside business, a deep paranoia has taken hold among the sellers since last month’s raids.“They’re paranoid, that’s for sure,” explained a former shoe-hawker named Diango, 56, who says he now acts as a mentor to the younger sellers.
“You go in there and tell them immigration is here, and they’ll disappear.Not run, but disappear.”Still, “they’re not afraid, they’re working to make a life,” he said.
“All they’re doing is their work.”Diango said the illicit trade has become a much harder way to earn a living than when he was at it nearly 20 years ago.“Before, you could make $1,000 [a day].That was in 2007 or 2008,”’ the man said.
“It was clean here, it was better qualities,” he added of the merchandise.“Right now, it’s bad-quality stuff.”Diango said some vendors, many of whom are immigrants from Africa and Asia, might not even earn $100 in a full day now.“Some say they make $1,000 a day.
They lying,” he said.The vendors’ heightened apprehension was on full display when an NYPD squad car drove by Sunday and fired up its sirens.In a matter of seconds, more than a dozen men started frantical...