People Are Overdosing on Fentanyl Pills Bought From Fake Online Pharmacies
US authorities recently targeted a drug trafficking ring that set up fake online pharmacies selling counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl and methamphetamine, underscoring the growing sophistication of such networks and the difficulty of combating them.
Francisco Alberto López Reyes controlled “every facet of the scheme” from his base in the Dominican Republic, US federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment announced September 30. This included overseeing at least nine fraudulent online pharmacies used to sell counterfeit Oxycodone pills laced with illicit fentanyl, as well as Adderall and Xanax tainted with methamphetamine, according to court documents.
Customers often thought they were buying legitimate pharmaceuticals. At least nine individuals who purchased drugs from López’s network had fatal overdoses. One victim, a veteran of the US Army National Guard, died after taking a counterfeit M30 Oxycodone pill, commonly known as “blues” for their color, that was laced with a deadly amount of illicit fentanyl.
“The proliferation of fake online pharmacies is fueling this nation’s fentanyl epidemic,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release. “[López] and his lieutenants have run a global network of these websites and aggressively marketed, manufactured, sold, and distributed millions of deadly fentanyl pills meant to mimic legitimate prescription drugs.”
SEE ALSO: Prescription Pills Laced With Meth, Fentanyl Sold in Northern Mexico Pharmacies: Report
López allegedly managed multiple so-called pill mills located in and around New York City. Prosecutors allege the group was able to produce as many as 200,000 counterfeit pills every 24 hours. They used dyes and other specialized equipment to “mimic the color, shape, size, and markings of commercially manufactured prescription pills,” according to the indictment.
The network relied heavily on manipulative marketing techniques to sell the counterfeit drugs online and through encrypted messaging platforms. The online pharmacies appeared legitimate and boasted of low prices, even offering free shipping, customer support services, and a 30-day return policy. López and his associates sent unsolicited free samples via mail and reached out to customers daily by phone and email to encourage more sales.
InSight Crime Analysis
The proliferation of fake online pharmacies selling counterfeit prescription pills is a relatively new phenomenon that poses significant difficulties for law enforcement, even as US drug overdose deaths are falling.
“This represents a new phase in this phenomenon,” said Ben Westhoff, an expert on synthetic drugs and the author of “Fentanyl Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic.”
“These [counterfeit] pills were traditionally sold on the street, but adulterated pills are now being sold online in a sophisticated way,” he added. “It’s a disturbing trend.”
SEE ALSO: US Drug Overdose Deaths Are Dropping, and Here’s Why
Drug overdose deaths in the United States, driven in large part by synthetic opioids like illicit fentanyl, dropped by about 10% between 2022 and 2023, according to preliminary data recently updated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It marked the first year-on-year decrease since 2018.
However, the market’s evolution online poses a serious risk to maintaining that downward trend due to the high percentage of the US population that uses prescription pills and purchases them online, either to save money or because they are unable to get a prescription.
But this is not just a US problem. Last year, a team of US researchers found that legitimate pharmacies in northwest Mexico were selling counterfeit prescription pills laced with illegal fentanyl and methamphetamine. While a number of powerful crime groups produce these synthetic drugs, it is still not clear how they got into the pharmacy supply chain. Federal health authorities didn’t approve any of the products, which sometimes had packaging written in English.
Mexican organized crime groups have also cashed in on selling counterfeit weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, which can lead to serious health problems and even death. A Reuters investigation found that criminal groups rely on corrupt actors at drug manufacturing companies to create fake batch numbers used to sell counterfeits. Authorities seized tainted Ozempic in several countries around the world, including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Britain, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Still, law enforcement faces increased obstacles as these networks turn to marketing their illicit products online. If one website gets shut down, another can easily be created using an encrypted domain.
“Finding these companies is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Westhoff told InSight Crime. “There’s probably lots more of them out there that are going to be very difficult to track down.”
Featured image: A screen shot of one of the fake online pharmacies selling counterfeit Oxycodone pills. Credit: US prosecutors.
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