International effort targets fake drugs

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- An international effort against the sale of counterfeit prescription drugs on the Internet shut down 72 Web sites, officials announced Friday in New York.

Operation Pangea II involved Interpol, U.S. agencies and task forces from two dozen countries, Interpol said in a release.

During the five-day operation that ended Friday, monitoring revealed 751 Web sites allegedly engaged in illegal activity, including offering controlled or prescription-only drugs, 72 of which were taken down, the international law enforcement agency said. More than 16,000 packages were inspected, with 995 seized. Nearly 167,000 illicit and counterfeit pills -- including antibiotics, steroids and slimming pills -- were confiscated, Interpol said.

Twenty-two people are being investigated for a range of alleged crimes.

"Our primary goal in Operation Pangea II is to protect the public by removing counterfeit and illicit medicines from the market, by shutting down illegal sales on the web, and by prosecuting those potentially putting lives of innocent consumers at risk," Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble.

"As the very positive results of this global effort are made public, Interpol and its member countries will prove again that the Internet is not an anonymous safe haven for those who use it for criminal purposes."

While many counterfeit pills are placebos, still potentially dangerous because patients are not getting the medication they need, others may have far too much of an active ingredient, risking overdose, investigators say. Others may be cut with dangerous substances.

Officials say prescription drugs are the fastest-growing counterfeit item. In 2007, 6 percent of all seizures for counterfeiting and patent and trademark violations were drugs, which rose to 10 percent in 2008.