00:05Wenn es eine Demand gibt, wird jemand immer die Supply geben,
00:09ob es legal oder illegal ist.
00:17Es gibt keine Art von wissen, dass die Pille oder die Formulierung,
00:24die du bought hast, was es auf der TIN steht.
00:31Von weight loss jabs to erectile dysfunction pills,
00:35the trade in medication and healthcare products
00:38bought online without prescription is booming.
00:41Cheaper alternatives or difficulty accessing treatments
00:43legitimately appear to be fueling demand,
00:46but sometimes the consequences can be fatal.
00:49Across Europe, a surge in counterfeit painkillers
00:52containing synthetic opioids known as nitazines
00:56has been linked to multiple deaths, including in the Netherlands.
01:05There's, you know, numerous cases of fake oxycodone
01:08that was found to not contain any oxycodone at all,
01:11but, you know, one of the many so-called super opioids,
01:16the nitazines, that can be hundreds, even thousands of times
01:19more potent than oxycodone.
01:21Nitazines are so dangerous for human health
01:23because they will have an effect on the central nervous system.
01:26You will have a respiratory depression,
01:29so basically means that your breathing stops
01:31and that will lead to death within a few minutes.
01:35Stopping the online fraudsters has become a major challenge for authorities.
01:39As soon as one website disappears, another can pop up.
01:44You cannot sell, offer, dispense medicinal products
01:49when you're not a pharmacy.
01:50So the rules are clear.
01:51It's just that the enforcement doesn't keep pace
01:54with what's happening in reality.
01:57Because the medication looks like actual medication,
02:00sometimes even with, like, the blister packages
02:02and the right colour and all these kind of things,
02:04people think, OK, this is something that I can buy
02:08and take for whatever pain or symptom that I have.
02:13Experts say it's the potency of the synthetic opioids
02:16they're seeing in fake pills which makes them so dangerous.
02:20Synthetic opioids are much stronger than the classic morphine,
02:24500 times more potent than morphine,
02:26100 times more potent than fentanyl.
02:28So, yeah, depending on the doses, they can be quite lethal.
02:32I think many people assume that when something is available online,
02:37then it's legitimate.
02:38And many people probably don't realise
02:40that they're not dealing with a legitimate pharmacy
02:43but just with a convincing-looking website.
02:52But it isn't just fake pharmaceuticals.
02:55Counterfeit luxury goods, electronics and tobacco products
02:58are just some of the many other goods traded online.
03:01Technology, social media, online marketplaces,
03:05you go online, you find an online shop,
03:08you buy products, you think, wow, that's a bargain.
03:11While in fact, you can just buy bad quality
03:14or even harmful products that will be shipped to you
03:17thanks to this great technology.
03:19You need to know that influencers do the promotion of counterfeits,
03:24often without knowing that,
03:25by using a new vocabulary.
03:27We're talking about dupes, we're talking about clones,
03:29we're talking about generics.
03:31All of these are products that are counterfeits
03:33and who are punished from a legal point of view
03:35as counterfeits,
03:37but who, finally, seem to be authorized
03:39because influencers use this new vocabulary.
03:42In terms of trends, we've all seen lately what e-commerce has done.
03:47It has essentially given fraudsters the capacity
03:50to bring these goods to our houses, to our doors,
03:53and controlling that is very, very difficult
03:56because every shipment is now one single parcel
04:00with one or two things in them,
04:01and that makes it difficult to detect,
04:04difficult to stop at the border when it comes in.
04:06The nature of the illicit trades now is often digital,
04:10and even the payments can be, obviously, arranged
04:13thanks to the use of cryptocurrencies.
04:15This way, obviously, it's even harder for us
04:18and the law enforcement agencies to trace
04:20all the financial flows when the cryptocurrency is involved.
04:30The world is literally flooded with small packages.
04:35You have millions of packaging that are flooding the world,
04:39and so the big difficulty is understanding
04:41in which packages you have something illicit.
04:44We see a tremendous growth in small parcels.
04:48Tremendous growth.
04:50Thousands of thousands of fast parcels
04:53containing counterfeit products.
04:55It's really difficult to detain them, to seize them,
04:59to spot fake goods in these fast parcels.
05:01They offer great possibilities for bad actors
05:05to smuggle products across the borders.
05:08Between 2016 and 2022, the global volume of postal packages
05:13increased by 150% from 64 billion to 161 billion units.
05:20In 2028, the volume is expected to reach 225 billion parcels.
05:29These goods move very fast now.
05:31I mean, they used to come by ship.
05:33Now they fly in.
05:34So it's a matter of hours before they come into the European Union.
05:38Intercepting that sort of traffic is complicated.
05:41And you can't really get a grip on everything that is moving on
05:45through courrier or through postal services.
05:52Today, to buy a counterfeit, it's financing criminal organizations.
05:56It's a crime that is not punished.
05:58It's the reason why the criminal networks
06:00are coming to be positioned on this illicit activity.
06:04It's an activity that, in fact, has little risks
06:07and brings very big.
06:09There is an increasing level of polycriminality
06:12in any criminal organization.
06:14They just shift from one market to another,
06:17from a product to another.
06:18At the same time, quite a low risk in terms of sanctions.
06:22Often, the sanctions are not as high as, for example,
06:25those that are seen for the drug trafficking.
06:30When you buy a cigarette in the black market,
06:33you simply do not know what you are breathing.
06:36When you buy a counterfeit medicine on the black market,
06:41you are lucky if there is no active ingredient within it.
06:46In the worst-case scenario, you have dangerous substances
06:50that make your own disease or condition even worse.
06:54Well, if people want to buy medicines online,
06:58I would say only buy medicines with a registered pharmaceutical company.
07:02And if it's not a registered pharmaceutical company, don't do it.
07:05The golden rule is know exactly where you buy your medicinal products
07:11or order your medicinal products.
07:12We already have a logo, an EU logo, for online pharmacies
07:17that are authorized to dispense medicinal products to patients
07:22because you really do not want to take risks with your health and with your life.
07:26You cannot trust anything that you buy online in terms of medication
07:31if it's not from a legit pharmacy.
07:33So go to your doctor, even if it's a hard conversation to have.
07:37But if you buy medication online, you don't know what you're getting.
07:51We're gonna try.
07:57We're gonna try.
07:58Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
