The Organized Crime Directorate of the Hellenic Police participated in a pan-European operation to dismantle an international trafficking ring of counterfeit medicines and food supplements, under a European investigation mandate and under the coordination of Eurojust and Europol.
According to the ELAS, the criminal group deceived citizens in several European countries by promoting illegal products as supposedly genuine medicines for serious diseases. Its activities reportedly began in 2019, and its members had established companies through which they distributed more than 400 unlicensed supplements.
The products were marketed through hundreds of websites and social media accounts, with the perpetrators using photos of celebrities and non-existent doctors to mislead their victims.
During the coordinated operation, 113 premises in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Moldova were searched and the main members of the group were arrested. At the same time, 196 websites in Romania used to distribute the products were deactivated and a large quantity of illegal supplements were seized, most of them in the criminal group’s main warehouse in Bulgaria.
In addition, assets worth €1.8 million were pledged. 1.1 million euros in Poland, while the illegal turnover of the organisation was estimated at 240 million euros.
In Greece, officers of the Financial Crimes Sub-Directorate, with the assistance of the Criminal Investigation Department, participated in an investigation of a logistics company in Attica to collect evidence.
It should be noted that the operation involved authorities from Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Latvia, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Moldova and the Czech Republic.
