Switzerland cracks down on illegal int'l online trade of medicines

The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) announced on Thursday that some 600 suspicious shipments containing medicines were checked in Switzerland as a result of a week-long international effort to combat the illegal online trade in drugs.

The confederation was one of 115 countries participating in this year's global operation PANGEA VIII which took place between June 9 and 16.

Operation PANGEA focuses on three main components of illegal online trading, that is, internet service providers, payment systems and delivery services.

Switzerland's 2015 crackdown, which was carried out by Swiss customs together with Swissmedic and Antidoping Switzerland personnel, saw the confiscation of 56 packages containing especially harmful medicines and 10 packages with banned doping agents.

According to Swissmedic, amongst the drugs seized were amphetamines, anabolic steroids, banned slimming preparations and illegal erectile stimulants.

Swiss authorities indicated that fewer imports of illegal shipments in the country were reported this year, as both an efficient awareness campaign and a significant processing cost (300 CHF) for those caught illegally importing drugs have appeared to have acted as deterrents.

Swissmedic also iterated its continued efforts to combat both national and foreign website illegal drug offerings - the domain names for several hundred websites were consequently withdrawn from a registration company based in Switzerland.

This year's operation resulted in 149,623 suspicious packages being checked around the world, 50,068 packages confiscated and 2,414 illegal websites ordered to close down.

According to INTERPOL, 156 arrests were conducted worldwide and 81 million U.S. dollars' worth of potentially dangerous medicines were seized. Endit