"Our primary goal in Operation Pangea II is to protect the public by removing counterfeit and illicit medicines from the market, by shutting down illegal sales on the web, and by prosecuting those potentially putting lives of innocent consumers at risk," said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.
Medicine regulators, police and customs officials around the world worked closely together during the crackdown from 16-20 November, focusing on the three principal components used by illegal websites to conduct trade - the Internet Service Provider (ISP), payment systems and the delivery services.
During the operation, Internet monitoring revealed 751 websites engaged in illegal activity, including offering controlled or prescription only drugs, 72 of which have now been taken down.
In addition, more than 16,000 packages were inspected by regulators and customs, 995 packages were seized and nearly 167,000 illicit and counterfeit pills - including antibiotics, steroids and slimming pills, confiscated.
Twenty-two individuals are currently under investigation for a range of crimes including illegally selling and supplying unlicensed or prescription-only medicines.
"As the very positive results of this global effort are made public, INTERPOL and its member countries will prove again that the Internet is not an anonymous safe haven for those who use it for criminal purposes.
Countries involved in Operation Pangea II were - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK and the USA."
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