Arrests made in global drug ring raid

Published: 21 Nov 09 11:26 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/23398/20091121/

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Three people have been arrested in Stockholm and held on suspicion of the illegal sale of prescription drugs, including diet pills and impotence treatment, as part of a international police operation.

Police in 26 countries have collaborated on the raid and a total of 22 people have been arrested in connection with the crackdown on the global network.

The three suspects currently being held by police deny any involvement. A further two people were arrested but were later released without charge.

During the raid in capital, police seized a large amount of medication with an estimated value of 1 million kronor ($144,100).

The tablets appear to be known brands such as Viagra but tests have revealed some to be placebo pills while others have small or large amounts of effective substances.

”Some contain nothing and others pills contact either a fraction of the substances or ten times more than real prescription drugs,” said Cecilia Fant, criminal inspector from the National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalpolisen).

Over 750 illegal websites around the world which sell tampered medication have been identified and 72 have been shut down.

”There has been a growth in the number of illegal online drug stores and it is difficult to identify them,” Fant added. ”But we expect to arrest more people in Sweden in connection with this type of crime.”

Police are unable to estimate how many people have been affected in Sweden by buying the medication.

The pills are largely bought from China, India and Thailand and sold on at a huge profit via the internet.

TT/Christine Demsteader (news@thelocal.se)

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12:09 November 21, 2009 by Jan M
They were simply trying to exploit Sweden's brilliantly thought out deregulation of the pharmacy system. Probably just the beginning. After all the only factor in the deregulation was to try to save the government some money and bring down prices. The people arrested here are testing the desire of the Swedish public for cheap drugs and no questions asked. It's worked for music, films etc. and it'll probably work for drugs as well. I recall during the debate over deregulation that most people felt the government and authorities would protect the public from low quality/unvalidated medicines. This may be an attempt to send that message. Unfortunately what's protecting Sweden is a legal system that is incapable of punishing crimes effectively. I will be interested to see what the sentences look like in this case.

The internet sales aspect is a bit of a red herring. If they simply wanted to sell over the internet why bring bulk quantities into Stockholm. Just sit in a country with even poorer law enforcement and post it.
13:50 November 21, 2009 by byke
I wonder if they will get a STIFF sentence?
17:12 November 21, 2009 by eZee.se
> I will be interested to see what the sentences look like in this case.

Ditto, especially when a guy who raped over 6 women ( one a minor) got two years.

All I can say is, lucky he was not caught under IPRED file sharing, because that costs the puppeteers who pull the strings of the Swedish civil judicial system money, which would mean the book would really be thrown at him.

- www.eZee.se
22:20 November 21, 2009 by 2394040
Wish I had thought of that.:):):):)
14:33 November 22, 2009 by peropaco
Since the crime is affecting directly the government vaults, i am sure these people will get long and hard time behing bars.
16:22 November 23, 2009 by mkvgtired
Jan M, I fail to see how deregulation had anything to do with this. Were these drugs found in a pharmacy? I think not.
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