Authorities from a total of 27 countries took action against trafficking in illegal medicines and medical devices, April through October 2021, and seized around 25 million units of pharmaceuticals and doping substances worth around 63 million euros. The operation called Shield II, the results of which have recently been released, also resulted in more than 540 suspects being arrested. The successful action was coordinated by Europol and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and was led by law enforcement agencies from France, Finland, Greece, and Italy.
A total of 20 EU member states and seven further countries1 were involved in the operation; as well as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and private sector actors. The focus was on organized crime groups trafficking illicit pharmaceutical products, including doping substances, food supplements, and pharmaceuticals such as cancer drugs, painkillers, and antivirals. As a result, more than 30 organized crime groups were investigated, and some 280 websites have been taken offline
Officials also uncovered clandestine manufacturing sites and underground laboratories; for example in Spain, where several premises were used in producing illegal medical products with two brands and over 30 individual products. A joint operation by Hungarian and Norwegian authorities, with the support of Eurojust, dismantled a criminal network that produced counterfeit medicines in Hungary and sold them in Norway. In addition to some 9 million counterfeit tablets, the authorities also seized two production machines, about one hundred thousand packages, and tens of thousands of labels in this enforcement. As another example, an action by Spanish and Italian authorities targeted counterfeit dietary supplements traded online.
The products seized particularly often included alleged cures for the coronavirus. Overall, important successes have been achieved in the fight against illegal coronavirus medicines. Next to the now generally high availability of Covid-19 vaccines in Europe, the authorities’ decisive action has had a negative impact on counterfeiters’ business, emphasizes Europol’s Executive Director Catherine De Bolle: „Fewer seizures of COVID-19-related drugs during Operation Shield II show that the rapid analysis of the situation and the proactive approach from the start of the pandemic has confined the spread of potentially dangerous counterfeits”.
With the current actions, authorities seized approximately three million medical devices linked to the virus Sars-Cov-2 and Covid-19 alone. All in all, they also seized a total of approximately 3.5 million packages of medicines, about 18.5 million tablets, circa 600,000 ampoules, and around 2,500 liters and 47 tons of raw materials during Shield II.
