These items were packed in boxes, piled high on more than 100 shipping pallets, Katz said.
Other warehouse workers remain under investigation. We believe this to be one of the largest single seizures of counterfeit masks since the pandemic began, Katz said.
District Attorney Melinda Katz said the masks were labeled 3M and sold to hospitals to protect healthcare workers
The masks were being sold to health care workers, who believed they were purchasing and using genuine 3M masks.
Instead, the substandard masks were imported from overseas, or produced in the warehouse, and repackaged with 3M branding. 3M is aggressively fighting counterfeiting of our critical products needed by health care and front line workers during the pandemic, 3M said in a statement. We are grateful to the Queens District Attorney s Office investigation, which has resulted in getting counterfeit respirators out of circulation. 3M recommends only buying products from authorized distributors.