Counterfeiters ran welfare scam

200G scam hit welfare
By TIM PERONE, NY Post

Eleven Queens residents scammed the city out of almost $200,000 in welfare benefits -- while running a million-dollar counterfeit designer handbag ring, cops said.

The fraudsters had been collecting assistance for at least two years while driving Lexuses and BMWs and living in homes in Bayside and Flushing that are priced around a million dollars, authorities said.

When members of the NYPD's Organized Crime Investigation Division raided six residences yesterday they also discovered over 13,000 bogus Louis Vuitton, Burberry and other high end handbags that the suspects were planning to hawk on Canal Street in Chinatown, Lt. Enrique Santos said.

Authorities believe they could have been sold for $1 million to gullible bargain hunters.

The scams were apparently family affairs -- many of the suspects are related, cops said.