‘No legit vaccines sold online’ – Interpol

No legitimate and approved Covid-19 vaccines could be bought online, the International Criminal Police Organisation – also known as Interpol – warned.

“Anyone ordering a vaccine online rather than obtaining it from their national provider will be buying a fake product,” Interpol’s secretary-general Jürgen Stock said.

He said that while criminals had been preying on people’s fears to make fast money from the onset of the global pandemic, fake vaccines were reportedly the latest scam.

“Which is why Interpol and HSI are warning the public to be extra vigilant,” Stock said.

The HSI is the United States’ Homeland Security Investigations.

“The networks behind these criminals have global ambitions. No country or region can fight this type of crime alone,” Stock said, adding they were assisting law-enforcement around the world in identifying and dismantling criminal networks.

Interpol announced in late 2020, the first internationally-linked arrests and seizures in connection with fake vaccines when criminal networks were disrupted in South Africa and China.

“Counterfeit vaccines threaten the health of consumers who are duped by nefarious actors seeking to exploit the pandemic situation for financial gain,” HSI assistant director and director for the national intellectual property rights coordination center Steve Francis said.

Francis added that they, along with law enforcement, would continue to investigate and seek to prosecute criminals who took advantage of the public’s quest for vaccines and endangered their lives.

“HSI will continue to work with Interpol to coordinate investigations targeting every level of the transnational criminal organisations trafficking counterfeit Covid-19 vaccines,” Francis said.

In November 2020, four people were arrested following a raid of a warehouse in Germiston, Johannesburg, for contravention of the counterfeit goods act, contravention of the customs and excise Act and contravention of the medicines and related substances act.

At the time, police spokesperson Colonel Brenda Muridili said the suspects were found in possession of 2 400 doses of the fake vaccine and fake masks, which were valued at R6-million.

In March, police officers at the OR Tambo International Airport seized unregistered medicines valued at R126-million.

The unregistered medicines were believed to be Ivermectin, mainly in tablet form.

Police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said the tablets were discovered when authorities inspected a cargo container destined to South Africa from India.

Meanwhile, in January, seven people were arrested for the illegal importation of unregistered medicine, which was mostly found to also be Ivermectin.

“One person was arrested at the King Shaka International Airport, while six others were arrested at OR Tambo airport,” Mathe said.

“In all cases, preliminary investigations revealed that the unregistered medicines had been imported for sale purposes and would have been utilised in the treatment of the Covid-19 virus.”

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