Society

Police nab 15 in crackdown on fake Viagra

By Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-26 09:37

GUANGZHOU - Police seized more than 6.9 million fake Viagra pills and a large amount of raw medicinal materials when they cracked down on a medicine-counterfeiting operation in Guangdong province this past week.

Police handcuff a suspect in Guangdong province on Tuesday during a crackdown on producers of counterfeit Viagra pills. Yangcheng Evening News

Fifteen suspects, including a suspected gang leader surnamed Qi, were detained, according to Xu Wenhai, director of the Guangdong provincial public security bureau's economic crimes investigation department.

Also captured were 51 machines used to make fake Viagra, 1,200 moulds and packaging boxes, 390,000 packaging bottles and many condoms and similar products. Those things all came from 49 secret production and storage sites that police shut down in Guangzhou and in Zhongshan this past Thursday.

"More than 250 police officers, making up 12 action teams, participated in this special campaign, which began at the same time in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, and Zhongshan," Xu said.

According to local medical experts, a person who takes excessively large amounts of sex hormones can do serious harm to his own health and an immoderate use of the hormones by someone who suffers from heart disease or hypertension might result in death.

It has been years since the production of fake Viagra has been found to be so widespread in Guangdong.

The Guangdong provincial public security bureau learned of the recent case when it received reports last June from the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, the maker of Viagra, alleging that Middle Eastern businessmen had been conspiring with Chinese producers and sellers of fake medicine to buy counterfeit Viagra in Guangdong.

"They then shipped the fake Viagra to the Middle East and places in America for a big profit," said Xu, who headed the special task force.

After more than 10 months of investigation, special campaigns were started simultaneously in Guangzhou's Baiyun district and the city of Zhongshan.

The fake Viagra production and packaging sites were found inside a two-story house with more than 1,000 square meters of floor space, in a place where town meets country in the Baiyun district.

"The special crackdown has struck a heavy blow to the fake-medicine industry in Guangdong province," Xu said.

Despite the success, Xu said police across the province will continue to fight vigorously against counterfeiting in the coming months.

Liu Zhicong, a Guangzhou white-collar worker, welcomed the crackdown on the production of fake Viagra.

"But police should not relax their vigilance, since fighting counterfeits is a long-term task in this province," he told China Daily.

"Viagra is displayed in prominent places in many drugstores in Guangzhou, and I think much of what one sees is fake."