A salesman from Leicester, Gary Haywood, has been jailed for six years for his involvement in a multi-million dollar counterfeit network involving male impotence drug Viagra and drugs used to treat male hair loss. In total, three men were sentenced today to a total of ten years in prison for their involvement in a number of illegitimate businesses selling fake Viagra.
Viagra tablets were bought for as little as 50 US Cents (25p) from ungoverned factories in China, India and Pakistan and sold onto unknowing consumers for up to £20 a tablet.
Huge quantities of the fake Viagra were illegally imported into the UK from the factories abroad, before being sold via the internet in the UK, putting consumer’s health at a considerable risk.
Real Viagra tablets are manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.
“Viagra fakes put consumers health at risk”
The discovery and breakdown of this counterfeit drug network is said to be the largest of its kind in the UK according to the Medical Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), bringing only good news to potential consumers of Viagra.
Sentencing judge Nicholas Price said “the scale of this criminal enterprise was truly global. It was long-running, it was highly organized and it was conducted with total and cynical disregard for unsuspecting and vulnerable customers."
The production of generic Viagra from developing countries is potentially dangerous, especially if those taking the tablets are unaware of their origin. These illicit factories that produce Viagra are not governed by the same strict medical governing bodies as the genuine products face, raising many health and safety questions over the pills.
Caught by chance
The key events that lead to the sentencing of three men after a nine month trial was infact a chance interception by UK customs officers. They seized a parcel containing 12,000 Viagra tablets addressed to Haywood, with a street value of around £200,000 GBP.
This sparked a global investigation spanning three continents and involving authorities from several different countries, working in unison to bring down those at the center of a huge counterfeit drug operation.
The 4 men behind the scam sold hundreds of thousands of tablets to unsuspecting customers in the U.S, U.K, the Bahamas and Mexico. Detectives are still trying to discover how much money was made from the sale of fake Viagra over a three-and-a-half year period.
Viagra; a target for counterfeit
Viagra is one of three oral impotence drugs approved by the FDA to treat erectile dysfunction; the others being Levitra and Cialis. All three work by increasing blood flow to the penis allowing an erection to be achieved.
Due to Viagra’s overwhelming popularity and status as a household name, it is an easy target for fraudsters looking to make profit from vulnerable, sometimes embarrassed impotence sufferers.
The breakdown of this counterfeit drug network provides great news for those looking to buy Viagra online. The sentencing of these four men will create a dent in the supply of fake medicines and send a clear message to deter others that such activities will not be tolerated by the law.
