Investigators serve arrest warrants on Ngo Kim Dieu – Photo: CACC
On January 14, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department initiated a case, prosecuted and temporarily detained Ngo Kim Dieu (41 years old, director of Kingpharm Company Limited), Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong (39 years old, director of Kien Lam Company Limited, Dieu's wife) and 20 others to investigate the crime of "producing and trading in counterfeit medicines and disease prevention drugs".
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong (Dieu's wife) and her husband were arrested and detained for producing counterfeit medicine – Photo: CACC
Police determined that the couple Dieu and Huong established and used the above two legal entities as a front to conceal the production and trade of counterfeit oriental medicine combined with various modern medicines.
On December 25, 2024, the Ho Chi Minh City Police directed the police in the districts and specialized units to set up four task forces to simultaneously conduct urgent searches at four locations that were facilities producing, storing raw materials, and processing finished counterfeit drugs.
Dieu and staff packing fake drugs – Photo: CACC
During the search, the police seized 1,164 boxes of finished drugs and raw materials of various types (including 56,255 units of fake drugs, the rest were raw materials or unfinished drugs); 1,600 kg of raw powder used to produce fake drug tablets; 5 machinery systems used to produce fake drugs.
It's worth noting that the counterfeit medicine packaging indicates the country of origin as Singapore or Malaysia.
The police had to mobilize 11 trucks to transport the above mentioned large quantity of fake drugs and raw materials to headquarters.
Investigators determined that Dieu and his wife began producing counterfeit medicine in 2018. Dieu himself only completed the 9th grade and had no expertise in the pharmaceutical field.
Diệu produced counterfeit medicine by purchasing traditional Chinese medicine ingredients and pharmaceutical active ingredients, mixing them together, grinding them into powder, and then using a machine to form them into pills… Most of the employees working for Diệu and her husband were relatives or close acquaintances.
Machinery used to manufacture counterfeit drugs – Photo: CACC
The defendants charged in the case – Photo: CACC
Fake drug production worth more than 45 billion VND
According to investigators, in 2024 alone, the couple Dieu produced counterfeit medicine worth over 45 billion VND. Do Thanh My (44 years old, residing in District 12), Do Thanh Hai (52 years old, residing in Binh Chanh District), and Nguyen Mong Dien (37 years old, from Tra Vinh ) alone sold counterfeit medicine worth nearly 35 billion VND.
Unlike previous cases of counterfeit drug production and trading, Dieu did not counterfeit drug brands circulating in the domestic and foreign markets, but instead created a company name and headquartered in Malaysia and Singapore (which did not exist in reality) to print on the packaging to show the origin of the products.
Diệu explained that the reason for counterfeiting was to exploit consumers' preference for foreign goods and to make it difficult for buyers and authorities to trace the origin of the products.
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