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Largest fake medicine gang in court

By Zhang Yan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-31 08:07

Two stand trial for producing and selling more than 10 tons of counterfeit drugs

Two leaders of the city's largest counterfeit medicine group, who stored more than 10 tons of fake medicine, were brought to Xuanwu district court yesterday.

The value of the fake medicine was estimated at 9 million yuan, a press officer of the court surnamed Zhang said.

Li Zhiguo and Li Bin were both charged with manufacturing and selling fake medicine. The court will start the trial at a later date.

Beijing police deployed more than 300 officers to investigate the fake medicine case from September 2008 to April.

In the arrest on April 14, 149 suspects were detained by police. The group's medicine was estimated to be sold to 17,000 people, including 41 Beijingers, police said in May.

As the Beijing municipal food and drugs administration tracked medicine ads on Inner Mongolia Satellite TV, they noticed one drug that claimed to have "immediate effects without side effects" on diabetes.

After checking the database, they found the drug was not in the registration catalog, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

They ordered some medicine from the company and after tests, found them to contain illegal elements that could be fatal.

The bureau then called Xuanwu district police.

From an initial investigation, police found the gang had three offices and distribution centers in Beijing.

Two months later, police learned that the group had a processing workshop, five warehouses and four sales centers in Beijing, as well as more than 100 employees. It was also found to sell fake gold and silver jewelry, cosmetics, and health products.

The gang had a sales team of more than 100 people who pretended to be medical doctors, pharmacists or customer service assistants, and promoted the medicine at hospitals and drugstores.

Sales records from the gang showed more than 17,000 people nationwide bought various kinds of medicine from the group.

The police said the cost of one box of fake medicine was 30 to 40 yuan to produce, but the retail price went up to 1,000 yuan.

On April 14, more than 100 officers raided the gang's locations and arrested 149 suspects. Police found 10 tons of more than 120 kinds of fake medicines.