Over the past two months, Egyptian police authorities have carried out a series of strategic raids and arrested five key suspects as part of an ongoing investigation against counterfeit medical products.
Millions of potentially life-threatening counterfeit medicines, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, were recovered during the operation, carried out by Egyptian police, customs and private sector investigators.
Part of the Interpol and World Health Organization International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (IMPACT), six raids took place in Port Said, Cairo and the Suez Canal throughout April and May.
Ten containers were seized, each holding hundreds of thousands of counterfeit medicines bound for the Middle East. Three of the containers were seized by Egyptian customs in the Suez Canal, and 3,300 bottles of counterfeit pharmaceuticals at Cairo airport.
A wide range of medicines were identified, including lifestyle products and others intended for organ-transplant patients or serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy or schizophrenia.
An Interpol statement said the taskforce believes that the raids are all linked to the same international criminal network.
Interpol now plans to publish a ‘green notice’ for one of the alleged ringleaders.
A green notice is circulated to all 187 Interpol member countries, providing a warning and criminal intelligence about persons who have committed criminal offences and are likely to repeat these crimes in other countries.