A few days ago, the police in Zhijiang City, Hubei Province, reported a case of extraordinarily large production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy veterinary drugs. With the close cooperation of the agricultural and rural departments, the police successfully smashed a gang involving the production and sale of inferior veterinary drugs in many provinces and cities across the country, seized more than 3,000 boxes of inferior veterinary drugs, and the amount involved amounted to more than 3,000 yuan. How are these shoddy veterinary drugs produced, and how do they reach the market?
The amount involved exceeded 30 million yuan
In April 2023, the Zhijiang Municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs received consumer complaints that there was a problem with the veterinary drugs purchased.
Wang Cheng, Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron of the Zhijiang City Agricultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade: We received an anonymous report that he bought a veterinary drug on the Internet, and found that the veterinary drug did not have an approval number, which was suspected to be a fake drug, and the delivery location was in Zhijiang, so we launched an external investigation based on the address he provided.
According to the tip-off clues, the investigators found the shipping address provided by the whistleblower, which was a large warehouse. Investigators found that the warehouse does not have many people coming and going every day, but there are trucks coming from time to time to deliver and pick up goods. In order to find out what was going on inside the warehouse, investigators decided to secretly squat near the warehouse.
Wang Cheng, Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron of the Zhijiang City Agricultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade: Through our three-day investigation, we found that a large number of veterinary drug products were stored in the premises. Later, through inquiry, we found that this place did not apply for a veterinary drug business license. Because of the huge amount, we reported the situation to the Zhijiang City Public Security Bureau and set up a joint investigation team to investigate.
After the investigators gradually approached the investigation, they found that a large number of veterinary drugs were stored in the warehouse, and the investigators immediately conducted a surprise inspection of the warehouse.
Wang Cheng, Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron of the Zhijiang City Agricultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade: We found a large number of veterinary drug products at the inspection site, and the quantity and variety are so large that we have never encountered this situation before.
Forge business licenses and buy three-no products online to pretend to be veterinary drugs
What is the problem with the large number of veterinary drugs found at the scene, and where did these veterinary drugs come from? Investigators conducted an in-depth investigation and checked this, and found problems on the outer packaging of the veterinary drugs.
Wang Cheng, Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron of the Zhijiang City Agricultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade: There are a large number of fake and inferior veterinary drugs in these veterinary drugs. This is marked with the feed approval number, and the product name is written as a feed raw material. However, the product efficacy marked on its packaging includes, the main treatment of dysentery, enteritis and so on. According to the provisions of Article 72, Paragraph 1 of the Regulations on the Administration of Veterinary Drugs, this product should be defined as a veterinary drug, but it does not have a veterinary drug approval number, which is a typical counterfeit drug that passes off as a non-veterinary drug. There is also this one, from the appearance, its packaging is marked with the production license number, we found through on-site inquiries, it marked the approval number in the national veterinary drug comprehensive inquiry system is not queried, should be treated as a fake veterinary drug.
The investigators then questioned the owner of the goods at the scene, and he confessed the fact of selling counterfeit and shoddy veterinary drugs.
Lin Fan, police officer of the Forest Police Brigade of the Zhijiang Municipal Public Security Bureau: He used the Internet to make a fake veterinary drug business license and uploaded it to a number of e-commerce platforms for review. Soon these platforms passed the qualification examination, and the shippers opened a number of online e-commerce companies for the sale of veterinary drugs. Many of the veterinary drugs he sells are "three no" products that he buys online. Experts conducted a preliminary identification of all types of veterinary drugs at the site and found that more than 200 batches of veterinary drugs were suspected of being counterfeit and shoddy veterinary drugs.
Investigators extracted several products from a large number of problematic veterinary drugs at the scene and sent them to the quality inspection department for testing.
Wang Cheng, Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron of the Zhijiang Agricultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade: Soon the testing agency issued a test report, and the test report showed that the products we sent for inspection were all substandard products.
Arrested 29 suspects and smashed the industrial chain of counterfeit production and sales
After grasping a large amount of evidence, the investigators carried out a network collection operation on the veterinary drug suppliers distributed in Anhui, Sichuan, Guangxi and other places according to the manufacturer's information provided by the consignor, and successfully smashed a number of counterfeiting industrial chains that provided inferior veterinary drug sources.
Lin Fan, a police officer from the Forest Police Brigade of the Zhijiang City Public Security Bureau, arrested a total of 29 suspects involved in the case, smashed 19 dens for making and selling counterfeit goods, and seized more than 3,000 boxes of fake and shoddy veterinary drugs at the scene, involving more than 3,000 yuan.
In the course of investigating the case, investigators found that the suspects generally targeted some small-scale farmers as sales targets for low-quality veterinary drugs.
Lin Fan, police officer of the Forest Police Brigade of the Zhijiang Municipal Public Security Bureau: The victims are mainly small farmers, who live in scattered areas, and their ability to distinguish fake and shoddy veterinary drugs and their awareness of protecting their rights are not strong. When they buy substandard veterinary drugs at cheap prices and suffer financial losses. They often neglect to defend their rights against merchants, and even think that they are using the wrong dose of veterinary drugs, or that the drugs are not the right symptoms, thus contributing to the continuous occurrence of illegal and criminal acts of selling fake and shoddy veterinary drugs.
Wang Cheng, Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron of the Zhijiang City Agricultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade: Once these fake and inferior veterinary drugs enter the market, they will first cause certain damage to the economic aspects of farmers. Because animal diseases are not effectively treated, they can cause some unnecessary deaths. At the same time, once the food that has used these fake and inferior veterinary drugs enters the market, it will have a certain impact on human health.
It is a violation of criminal law to produce and sell counterfeit and shoddy veterinary drugs and cause losses
Veterinary drugs are drugs or preparations used to prevent, treat, diagnose animal diseases or purposefully regulate animal physiological functions, which can ensure the health of animals and enhance the quality and safety of animal husbandry products. The quality of veterinary drugs is directly related to the food safety of consumers and the economic interests of farmers. The Criminal Law of the Mainland stipulates that anyone who produces or sells counterfeit or shoddy veterinary drugs and causes relatively large losses in production shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also be fined;
Strict supervision and intensify the crackdown on fake and shoddy veterinary drugs
Law enforcement officials said that the low cost and low price of fake and shoddy veterinary drugs have impacted the market of formal veterinary drugs and disrupted the normal market order of veterinary drug operations. To this end, the relevant functional departments have taken severe measures to crack down on the illegal acts of manufacturing and selling inferior veterinary drugs. Here is also a reminder to the majority of consumers to improve their awareness of self-protection, strengthen the ability to distinguish between real and fake veterinary drugs, and avoid unnecessary economic losses.
Wang Cheng, Squadron Leader of the Second Squadron of the Zhijiang Agricultural Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade: As a consumer, when buying veterinary drugs, you can first scan the code to find out whether the product is a qualified product. Secondly, you can check whether the manufacturer is a compliant enterprise through the official national platform. Once they find out that they have purchased fake and inferior products, consumers can report them to the local agriculture and rural departments. (CCTV News)