Arrested for selling counterfeit drugs
A Shanghai citizen has been arrested for selling counterfeit drugs at his online store.
The suspect, surname Liu, told Minhang District People’s Procuratorate that he had been buying drugs from a German-based website since November 2015, and he then sold them to domestic customers through his online shop on an e-commerce platform.
However, the drugs did not go through inspections of the country’s drug supervision and management authority, and were therefore regarded as counterfeit drugs.
Liu was said to have made a total profit of over 500,000 yuan (US$76,600) through the illegal business.
He told prosecutors that his child had caught a cold at the beginning of 2015, but recovered after taking medicine Liu bought from an online seller. Liu said he found the medicine effective in healing colds, and noticed other people were selling it online.
Liu then started buying drugs from the German-based website and resold the drugs — mostly anti-coughing and fever medicines — through his online shop, making a 30 percent profit. The website claimed to be the official site of German-manufactured drugs.
In July, police found a total of 1,287 boxes of illegally imported drugs in Liu’s house.
According to China’s drug management regulations, imported drugs must go through official inspection to be approved before a selling license can be issued.
Having no license, Liu was charged for selling counterfeit drugs.