The United States Attorney’s Office has indicted eleven Dominicans involved in a criminal conspiracy to threaten and extort money from American internet pharmacy customers by impersonating government agents. Investigators received over 1,000 complaints from American victims who paid imposters hundreds of thousands of dollars as so-called “fines” to prevent prosecution for purchasing drugs without a…
Read MoreSixty one patients who suffered complications due to the use of counterfeit cancer drugs, have been identified as plaintiffs in a Shanghai fake drug case, implicating 18 possible defendants. On February 2, 2011, the People’s Republic of China Shanghai Information Office announced that 116 patients, prescribed Avastin, a cancer drug also used to treat macular…
Read MoreThe Argentinian Federal Police’s Technical Criminal Investigation division conducted 11 raids in the ongoing counterfeit medicine mafia investigation, including a large raid at the Posadas Hospital, in the greater Buenos Aires district of Haedo. Six people were arrested. Among those arrested were a former policeman linked to trafficking in ephedrine, while all have been implicated…
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On January 29, 2011, two Chinese nationals pled guilty to trafficking in over-the-counter weight-loss medications, including manufacture and distribution, in the United States, announced the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office (ICE), culminating a two year undercover investigation.
According to court documents, between December 2008 and March 2009, the FDA issued a series of alerts concerning tainted weight loss pills and counterfeit versions of the brand-name drug “Alli,” a popular over-the-counter weight-loss drug, indicating that these fake drugs were also being imported into the United States from China and that they did not contain the proper active pharmaceutical ingredient for the authentic product, but instead contained dangerous levels of Sibutramine. The counterfeit versions of Alli were being sold in the United States, among other ways, through internet websites, including online auction websites such as eBay. The FDA stated in these initial alerts that the items posed a very serious health risk to consumers, because, based on analysis, they were found to be drugs that contained undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients, including Sibutramine (a non-narcotic controlled substance), reports the ICE.
Read MoreThe World Health Organization’s international plea to contain artemisinin resistance is being heeded by Ghana’s government as it clamps down on fake malaria drug hawkers and increasing vigilance for first signs of the deadly disease. Dr. Felicia Owusu-Antwi, Country Advisor on Malaria for the WHO Ghana office said that while Ghana has no documented evidence…
Read MoreA three year investigation into the international distribution of fake drugs led to the arrest of a 32 year old Chinese man residing in Wellington, NZ suspected of marketing counterfeit medicine using the internet. Auckland Metro Crime and Operations Support, a New Zealand police agency, announced they arrested the unnamed man and remanded him on…
Read MoreIndian police in Patna have recovered 1,600 bottles of fake cough syrup from a parcel van in cross country transit.
Read MoreA Philadelphia resident pleaded guilty to an 18 count indictment for the illegal importation and distribution of four million fake diet pills that contained unapproved drugs and carcinogens.
Read MoreThe Kurdistan Ministry of Health announced that they will ban medical clinics that sell “cheap and unregistered medicines,” reported Dr. Khalis Qadir Ahma, spokesman for the Ministry. In December 2010, the government confiscated counterfeit 20 products from several Kurdish companies based upon quality control testing. “We do not know where those counterfeits are coming from,…
Read MoreNigeria has reported a drop in counterfeit medicines from 40% to 5% as a result of a combined effort between local and international law enforcement, as well as increased surveillance and the use of new anti-counterfeiting technology.
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