Three fake medicine production and distribution gangs were dismantled, involving over 12 million yuan
Pan Feng, Qiu Shi, Gao Xing
Xinhua News Agency (by correspondents Pan Feng, Qiu Shi, and reporter Gao Xing) - At the end of February, the Economic Investigation Department of the Municipal Public Security Bureau successfully dismantled a fake medicine production and distribution gang led by Yao in the Dongxihu District. By this point, after more than one and a half years of arduous investigation, the economic investigation police successfully dismantled three Tianmen-native gangs involved in the production and distribution of counterfeit medicines, with the value of the fake medicines reaching over 12 million yuan. Due to their significant achievements in combating intellectual property rights infringement and the production and sale of counterfeit goods, the Economic Investigation Division of the Municipal Bureau was awarded the "Advanced Collective for Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Protection by National Public Security Organs in 2010," making it the only unit in the province's public security organs to receive such an honor.
Two years ago, economic investigation officers discovered a group of illegal personnel from Tianmen in Wuhan who had formed a criminal gang producing and selling counterfeit medicines. They advertised on the Internet and in newspapers, selling fake medicines such as "Wen Shen Jiang Tang Ning Capsules" and "Fu Kang Xiao Ke Hua Tang Capsules" via express mail. After painstaking investigations, at the end of that year, the economic investigation department successfully dismantled the fake medicine production and distribution gang led by Gan Junbo from Tianmen, with six criminals sentenced.
After Gan Junbo's gang was dismantled, the police found that advertisements for selling fake medicines still appeared on the Internet. Through tracking and surveillance, another fake medicine production and distribution gang led by Peng Shaoxiong, a man from Tianmen, came to light. The economic investigation department identified four sites where they manufactured and stored fake medicines in Jianghan District. On November 3 of last year, they organized 60 police forces to "close the net," arresting 19 suspects including Peng Shaoxiong and confiscating a large number of tools used for counterfeiting and selling fake goods. It was also confirmed that the gang sold self-made counterfeit medicines to more than 30 provinces and cities across the country, involving an amount of over 5 million yuan and affecting more than 5,000 victims.
Through reviewing the members of the Peng Shaoxiong gang, special task force investigators uncovered another clue about a gang engaged in the production and sale of counterfeit medicines in Wuhan. On the 28th of last month, the police mobilized 90 officers, cooperating with the city's Food and Drug Administration, successfully arresting 16 suspects including Yao from Tianmen, dismantling six sites involved in the manufacture, storage, and sale of counterfeit medicines, and seizing fake medicines valued at nearly 5 million yuan.
According to the case-handling officers of the Economic Investigation Division of the Municipal Public Security Bureau: The main members of these three gangs involved in the production and sale of counterfeit medicines are all from Tianmen. They buy leftover Chinese herbal dregs, put them into capsules, randomly create trendy drug names, fabricate expert recommendation articles online to deceive patients, turning the fake drugs into miraculous cures for diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and gout which are difficult to cure, and then send them to patients via logistics, making them highly deceptive.