Largest fake drug haul in Europe from India

Customs officers at Brussels' Zaventem Airport, Belgium, have seized three shipments of counterfeit drugs in transit from Mumbai, India to Togo. According to local media reports, at over 2.1 million tablets, the haul is the biggest ever uncovered in the European Union.

The two products targeted by the counterfeiters were: Fansidar (pyrimethamine sulfadoxine), an antimalarial made under license from Swiss drug major Roche; and Tramal (tramadol HCl), a painkiller originally manufactured by German pharmaceutical firm Grunenthal.

A spokesman for the Belgian Customs and Excise, Lieven Muylaert, told Le Soir that most of the seized agents were imitations of Fansidar. It is considered likely that after shipment to Casablanca, Morocco, then onwards to Togo, the drugs would have been circulated in several countries in the region, for example, neighboring Benin, Burkina Faso and Ghana. Mr Muylaert told reporters that customs officers had been suspicious of the packages, which were found to have spelling mistakes on the labeling.