Real money buys fake health food!
In recent years, social networks have developed strongly, functional foods have been introduced and sold everywhere, making it difficult to control... Notably, the demand for brain-boosting and stroke-preventing drugs and functional foods is attracting a lot of attention, customers are willing to "pay" for a box of functional foods priced at around 3,000,000 VND to protect the health of themselves and their loved ones.
Grasping consumer needs and trends, a large-scale fake functional food production line was formed in Hanoi and then spread to the provinces, including the Thanh Hoa market.
Major Nguyen Van Hung - Deputy Head of the Police Team for Investigation of Economic, Positional and Environmental Crimes of Thanh Hoa City Police said: The project "Fighting against subjects producing and trading counterfeit functional foods in Thanh Hoa City and related units" was established at the end of 2023. During the process of fighting, the project team identified the ring leader as Nguyen Thi Thinh (born in 1978), residing in My Dinh 2 Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi City. Before running the ring, Thinh had spent time in the pharmaceutical and functional food business, so she knew how to find sources of goods to counterfeit and how to sell these products on the market.
To increase the value of her products, Thinh chose a functional food product called a pill that helps prevent strokes, produced by Kwangdong Company, sold in the Korean market and exported some product codes to Vietnam. Thinh's method was quite sophisticated, she ordered the floating "pills" in batches, then divided the shipments into small batches and assigned the packaging and consumption stages... The packaging and storage locations were also divided into many different places (mainly rented rooms) to avoid detection by authorities.
The people hired by Thinh to pack the goods all had unstable jobs, were in financial difficulty, and among them were even drug addicts... After being packaged with eye-catching labels, the goods were exactly like Kwangdong Company's products, and were sold by Thinh through Tu Liem Traditional Medicine Market, wholesale pharmacies, and retail channels... Notably, to create trust for customers that the products were genuine from the manufacturer, Thinh even went to Kwangdong Company's headquarters in Korea to visit and livestream on social networking platforms...
Captain Le Van Tuan - Deputy Head of the Police Team for Investigation of Economic, Positional and Environmental Crimes of Thanh Hoa City Police added that during the investigation, the task force determined that the most difficult problem was to contact and coordinate with the representative of Kwangdong Company in Vietnam to obtain sample goods as a standard for comparison with counterfeit goods. At the same time, the detectives were ordered to clearly grasp the operating rules of the subjects regarding the time, place of production, packaging of products; time, place of delivery... so that when solving the case, there would be full evidence.
Another important thing is to prove that the pharmacy owners and sales units know that these are fake goods, counterfeit goods but still deliberately import the goods to resell for profit. With the determination of the task force, the detectives have been tracking the movements of the subjects day and night, the reconnaissance information is almost absolutely accurate. Therefore, when arrested and fought, almost all the subjects admitted to their crimes.
Raid 10 motel rooms, arrest 9 subjects
After a period of persistent struggle, on April 4, 2024, under the drastic direction of the Director and Head of the Provincial Police Investigation Agency, Thanh Hoa City Police mobilized more than 50 officers and soldiers to conduct simultaneous searches at 10 locations including residences, workplaces, production sites, and hiding places of goods of the subjects in Hanoi and Thanh Hoa City.
Through the search, the police discovered and seized many products and raw materials to produce counterfeit goods, including: More than 4,000 boxes of finished Vu Hoang Thanh Tam An Cung Vien Hoan (box of 10 pills), the value of goods is equivalent to 10 billion VND; 100 boxes of An Cung Nguu Hoang Hoan (box of 60 pills) produced by Samsung Pharm Company.
Raw materials used to produce and package counterfeit products include: 7 plastic bottle covers, plastic bottle caps used to contain An cung nguu hoang pills; more than 1,000 Kwangdong brand anti-counterfeit stamps, Kwangdong brand instruction stamps; over 1,000 kg of yellow round tablets wrapped in yellow paper along with many tools and machines to package the products such as: presses, glue guns, staples, adhesive tape, etc.
Based on the results of the investigation, the Thanh Hoa City Police Department issued a decision to prosecute the case, prosecute the accused and temporarily detain the subjects for the crime of "Production and trading of counterfeit food products", including: Nguyen Thi Thinh, the mastermind leading the production and trading of counterfeit goods, directly sourcing raw materials, hiring people to print packaging and packaging products, then selling them on the market through distribution channels; Nguyen Lan Huong, the subject directly contacted to buy counterfeit goods from Thinh; Tran Anh Cuong (born in 1994), the subject directly managing goods for Huong, receiving orders from retail customers and delivering goods to customers; Ngo Thi Tu (born in 1982), the subject hired by Thinh to print fake labels, packaging, and boxes; Nong Quang Hai, the subject hired by Thinh to box fake An cung nguu hoang hoan products; Nhu Thi Minh; Pham Van Chien and Trinh Thi Hiep are the subjects directly involved in purchasing fake goods from Thinh to retail on the market.
In order to expand the investigation, Thanh Hoa City Police prosecuted and arrested Nong Thi Hang for producing counterfeit goods. In this case, Hang was hired by Nguyen Thi Thinh to package the finished product of fake anti-stroke medicine.
Through the above incident, Thanh Hoa City Police recommends that when buying imported functional foods in particular, imported products in general, people need to find reputable manufacturers with long-standing brands. In particular, for imported products, it is necessary to clearly check the import and export documents; the product must have a secondary stamp of the importing unit; scan the QR code to access product information...
On April 25, 2024, Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Long, Deputy Minister of Public Security, sent a letter of commendation to the Director of Thanh Hoa Provincial Police; the Chief of Thanh Hoa City Police; and the Captain of the Economic, Positional and Environmental Crime Investigation Police Team of Thanh Hoa City Police for their achievements in dismantling a large-scale production and trading ring of counterfeit health food products. “…The results of the investigation and discovery of the case have contributed to ensuring the rights and health of consumers, creating a healthy business environment, serving socio-economic development and fulfilling commitments to protect intellectual property rights and protect brands according to regulations and international trade agreements that Vietnam has participated in; at the same time, deterring and preventing organized crimes from violating economic management order, harming the interests, health, and even the lives of consumers…”, the letter of commendation clearly stated.
Source
Comment (0)