ATLANTA -- If you bought an NFL, NBA or college jersey or a certain popular polo shirt online – here’s a warning for you!

A major counterfeit merchandise investigation is coming to an end here in metro Atlanta. A private eye who works in the world of counterfeit merchandise says authorities have struck a mother lode of bogus sportswear worth millions of dollars on the street, or in this case, online.

We’re told the garments the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Intelligence Unit and industry private investigators found in storage lockers in Marietta and other locations are counterfeit. But the trouble three men face if the allegations prove true is real.

Right now, three men are charged with possession and distribution of counterfeit goods.

An investigator told us she works for industry trademark holders. Every NFL or NBA jersey found in the raid, each collegiate jersey, each IZOD Polo shirt we saw is fake – manufactured on the cheap overseas to be sold online as the real thing at a variety of prices. They are counterfeit because they are not manufactured by the companies whose name and logos appear on the merchandise.

The investigator says similar garments sometimes were sold in online auctions for some high prices.

Cobb County District Attorney Pat head says the goods found could net as much as “in excess of $5 million.”

We’re told one of the industry private eyes found the thread that led to the investigation – and continued to work with the MCS unit. Their detectives picked it up and have worked the case 6 months so far.

An investigator says three men were in custody by this morning and more arrests were expected. She says all the labeling on the garments we saw is bogus too. The private eye told us the mini-warehouse where the items we saw were seized, was not implicated in any wrongdoing whatsoever.