When Interpol seized an estimated $2.6 million worth of drugs in a blitz last fall, the international crime fighters weren’t after cocaine or heroin. They confiscated thousands of packages of antibiotics, insulin and heart and cancer medications.
The sting, dubbed Operation Pangea III, was part of a less familiar war on drugs — the fight against counterfeit meds. It’s a high-stakes battle: A $1,000 investment in fake drugs can return $30,000, 10 times the typical profit from the same investment in heroin, the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates. This version of drug trafficking also has deadly collateral damage: A 22-year-old woman in Argentina with mild anemia died from liver failure after receiving counterfeit iron injections. More than 50 kids in Nigeria died after taking a teething medication containing the poisonous solvent diethylene glycol. And a Canadian woman died from fake drugs she purchased online; they were loaded with metals, including aluminum, titanium and arsenic.
Counterfeit drugs have long been a problem in regions where the path from manufacturer to consumer is circuitous and full of holes. But the Internet has made it easy for anyone, anywhere, to circumvent legitimate supply chains, taking counterfeit drug trading to new highs — and lows.