El crimen organizado está acostumbrado a ajustarse rápidamente a lo que representa un mundo globalizado y cambiante. Un escenario de emergencia como el generado por el COVID-19 está poniendo a prueba una vez más su capacidad de adaptación, por lo que quienes trabajamos por coartar sus capacidades debemos redoblar ahora nuestra vigilancia.

This Guide is intended to support States in enacting or strengthening domestic legislation to combat falsified medical product-related crime and, in so doing, contributing to the protection of public health. States may use this Guide as a practical tool as they draft, amend or review relevant national legislation within their constitutional and legislative framework.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic poses a host of global health, economic, and security challenges, to include the continued challenge of combating transnational organized crime. While some believe this pandemic will disrupt and have a negative impact on the global operations of transnational organized criminal groups, the morbid reality is that these groups view the crisis as a lucrative opportunity. For the foreseeable future, we can expect organized criminal groups to quickly adapt in order to exploit the pandemic via various illicit schemes. In Italy, mafia groups are already demonstrating that they are intent on benefiting from the crime-related opportunities that the COVID-19 pandemic will present.

Counterfeit goods sold during the corona crisis do not meet the required quality standards and pose a real threat to public health and safety. People who buy these fake products have a false sense of security, while they are in fact left unprotected against the virus. Therefore, we should not only go after the criminals behind these scams but also, through prevention work, inform potential victims who are putting themselves and others at risk by using such fake goods.

The COVID-19 crisis has heightened the dangers posed by the global trade in counterfeit pharmaceutical products. Serious health and safety issues arise when people order fake medicines online.

To help governments combat the trade in fake medicines, and the OECD and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) have joined forces to provide policy makers with solid empirical evidence about the value, scope and trends of the trade, which causes significant economic damage as well as risks to health and safety.

Counterfeit facemasks, substandard hand sanitizers and unauthorized antiviral medication were all seized under Operation Pangea XIII, which saw police, customs and health regulatory authorities from 90 countries take part in collective action against the illicit online sale of medicines and medical products.

The operation resulted in 121 arrests worldwide and the seizure of potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals worth more than USD 14 million.