On the shelves of one of the many Chinese-owned stores in Novi Sad, Serbia's second largest city, are wireless headphones packaged in a white cardboard box marked "iPod."
At first glance, buyers might think they are buying a product from the American technology giant Apple. However, closer observers, apart from the extremely low price – less than two dollars – for headphones that normally cost around 20 dollars in Serbia, may notice something else unusual.
The box says "Apple Earphone" - in the singular, instead of the plural. It also says the product is "made in California" - with the letter "m" instead of "rn" in the name of the state where Apple is headquartered.
These headphones are part of a flood of Chinese products masquerading as well-known Western brands that have flooded the Balkans and taken over the shelves of stores owned by Chinese immigrants, whose numbers have skyrocketed in the region in recent years.
There is no exact data on the total amount of such Chinese goods arriving in the Balkans. In addition to fake "Apple" electronics, there are also sneakers, clothing and other items sold under the names of global brands such as "Nike", "Tommy Hilfiger", "Adidas", "Hugo Boss", "Armani", "Gucci" and "Louis Vuitton".
However, customs data suggests that the number reaches at least hundreds of thousands of units annually, and Radio Free Europe's (RFE) Balkan Service has identified at least one route by which these products reach the shelves of Balkan stores – including transit through an Italian port known for its mafia connections.
A Chinese businessman who has lived in Serbia for several years, and who until recently was active in import-export business, said that around 85 percent of these goods arriving in Serbia are shipped from the port of Ningbo on the east coast of China.
A single container transporting goods can contain up to 2.000 items, which makes it impossible to control each individual product, says the businessman, who agreed to speak to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity due to possible legal consequences.
"Customs cannot check every container and every product," he said.
The purchase of these counterfeit items "in bulk" is usually done in cash and between parties who know each other and have long-standing business relationships, he added.
The businessman says that from Ningbo, the goods are shipped to the Italian port of Gioia Tauro in Italy. From there, he explains, these goods are transported in smaller ships to the ports of Rijeka, Croatia; Bar, Montenegro; and Koper, Slovenia.
Radio Free Europe (RFE) has independently confirmed this route with customs authorities in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Italy.
After arriving in Slovenia, Croatia or Montenegro, counterfeit goods are transported to Serbia by road and rail, the Serbian Customs Administration told RFE/RL.
The administration said that last year alone, officers seized 104 different products on suspicion of violating intellectual property rights, while more than 61 items were destroyed - mostly textiles.
Croatian customs officials told RFE/RL that they handle around 600 cases of suspected intellectual property infringement annually, primarily in the ports of Rijeka and Ploče, but also at the Bajakovo border crossing with Serbia. Around 85 percent of these goods come from China, and most of the goods are counterfeit brands from the EU and the US, according to Croatian Customs.
The Montenegrin Customs Administration told RFE/RL that China remains a key country of origin for all types of counterfeit goods. Montenegrin customs officers seized 5.274 counterfeit items from China last year, up from 3.303 the previous year, the memo said.
Chinese connection
The Balkan region has become strategically important for China, which has invested in major infrastructure projects in the region and, among other things, signed a free trade agreement with Serbia that has been in effect since July 2024.
Most Balkan countries are not members of the European Union, but are part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure development strategy launched by Beijing in 2013, which some Western governments warn could lead to excessive debt to China.
Chinese exports to Serbia grew by an average of 16,7 percent annually from 2018 to 2023, jumping from $1,8 billion to almost $XNUMX billion during that period, according to the latest data from the Economic Complexity Observatory, a trade data platform.
Among the dozens of Chinese companies offering their products on the Balkan market through local Serbian firms is Shenzhen VBO Industrial Co., a manufacturer of wireless headphones that look identical to those in a fake Apple box in a store in Novi Sad visited by journalists.
The company did not respond to a query about whether its products are sold under the "Apple" brand.
The company is located in the Tianan Cyber Industrial Park in the southeastern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The factory covers an area of 6.000 square meters and specializes in the production of audio equipment.
The website of the company "Shenzhen VBO Industrial" lists the price of the headphones that the journalists purchased in a store in Novi Sad: $0,69 to $0,99.
They are sold in a box without the "Apple" logo. It is not clear whether the headphones found by journalists in Novi Sad were purchased directly from the Chinese company or through an intermediary in Serbia.
In neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, RFE/RL reporters visited Chinese-owned stores and found other counterfeit brands from the US, including Nike sneakers for $20 and Tommy Hilfiger T-shirts for $11, significantly cheaper than the originals.
'Low risk, high profit'
RFE/RL has asked the Italian financial police, Guardia di Finanza, for comment on Italy's role as a transit point for counterfeit Chinese goods being shipped to the Balkans.
Officials responded with a statement in October 2023, describing an "illegal production line" of counterfeit products involving Italian and Chinese organized crime.
The statement said that counterfeit labels and packaging are added to some of these products only after they arrive from China.
Italian financial police did not respond to specific questions about the port of Gioia Tauro in the Italian region of Calabria, which a Chinese businessman from Serbia described as a key transit point for counterfeit goods from China to the Balkans.
However, the port of Gioia Tauro is known to be a drug trafficking center that is reportedly believed to be linked to the notorious Italian crime syndicate 'Ndrangheta.
In 2022 and 2024, Italian authorities uncovered criminal networks linked to the 'Ndrangheta whose members are suspected of smuggling hundreds of millions of euros worth of cocaine into Europe through Gioia Tauro – an operation in which corrupt port workers allegedly participated.
Ruggero Scaturo, a senior analyst at the Swiss-based NGO Global Initiative, described the port of Gioia Tauro as a place where the legal and illegal intersect, but under the firm control of the 'Ndrangheta.
"In essence, Gioia Tauro functions in a dual reality: as a large commercial center where anyone can theoretically trade, but also as a place where the rules of access for illegal goods are dictated by the 'Ndrangheta," Scaturo told RFE/RL.
He emphasized that the Balkans, between Asia, the Middle East and the EU, naturally imposes itself as a gateway for goods moving westward, and that it remains a key distribution point.
"The smuggling of counterfeit goods is rarely an isolated business – it is often run by the same criminal networks that control other illegal activities," said Scaturo.
"The attraction is clear: while drug trafficking carries serious legal consequences, smuggling counterfeits remains a relatively low-risk, high-profit business, making it a lucrative side business for these groups," he added.
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