The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency broke up a criminal ring that was selling counterfeit erectile dysfunction drugs in the country. The ring would buy fake Viagra from producers in China for $0.06 (70 South Korean Won) per tablet. They would then resell the counterfeit drugs to men in South Korea for $0.81 to $0.90 (900 to 1,000 Won) per tablet.
The price of legitimate Viagra made by Pfizer and sold at pharmacies in South Korea normally cost between $16.15 to $17.94 (18,000 Won to 20,000 Won) per tablet.
Source: Yonhap, “Nine nabbed for smuggling fake Viagra from China,” Yonhap News, May 15, 2013.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Nigeria reported that the prevalence rate of counterfeit drugs in the country was at 6 percent in 2013. The rate was down from16.7 percent over the previous five years.
Officials in Nigeria state that most of the fake drugs originate from China.
Source: Francis Kokutse, “Unlike India, China not helping Nigeria stop fake drugs’,” New York Daily News, May 15, 2013.
Each year, up to 12,000 people from China are smuggled into the United States without the proper documentation, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Each migrant is believed to have paid up to $50,000 to a human smuggler in order to be smuggled into the United States, creating a $600 Million human smuggling industry in China.
(More human smugglers fees.)
Source: “Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment,” UNODC, April 2013, Executive Summary, page v.
An estimated 3.3 million people across the East Asia and Pacific region consume heroin on an annual basis. In China, an estimated 2,366,000 people used heroin in 2010, followed by Indonesia with 247,000 users, Vietnam with 155,000 heroin users, and Myanmar with 100,000 users.
In 2011, up to 65 tons of pure heroin was believed to have been consumed across the region.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the heroin market in the region is worth $16.3 Billion.
Source: “Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment,” UNODC, April 2013, Executive Summary, page vi.
Media companies in the United States estimates that up to $1 Billion worth of Pay-TV shows are watched in Asia without the proper licenses and fees being paid.
In China alone, the US International Trade Commission stated that $48 Billion worth of copyright materials produced by business in the US was consumed in China in 2011 without payment.
Source: Caitlin Dewey, “Why a U.S. ambassador asked Australians to stop pirating ‘Game of Thrones’,” Washington Post, WorldViews, April 26, 2013.
Wildlife traffickers sell the bladder of the Totoaba fish in China and Hong Kong for up to $200,000.
The fish is listed as an endangered species and is protected under the Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species.
The bladder is considered a delicacy in China and is used in fish maw soup. Consumers believe that the bladder helps improve blood circulation, skin complexion, and fertility.
(See additional prices of endangered animals.)
Source: Associated Press, “7 charged with smuggling bladders of endangered fish to China, elsewhere for use in soup,” Washington Post, April 24, 2013.
An estimated 8 million tons of e-waste is illegally smuggled and dumped in China each year. According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, most of the electrical and electronic waste is dumped in Guangdong Province. The waste is then recycled and sold to the manufacturing industry.
The estimated value of this black market in e-waste in the East Asia region is $3.75 Billion.
Source: ”Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment,” UNODC, April 2013, Executive Summary, page ix.
An investigation by the WWF-Russia reports that half of the Mongolian oak that was cut down in Russia and shipped to China in 2010 was illegally logged. In 2007 and 2008, the illegal timber was four times as large as the legitimate trade.
In 2011, there were a reported 691 cases of illegal logging in Primorsky Province. 16 percent of the cases were brought to trial, the lowest level in 10 years.
Source: ”Russian forests and tigers left floored by illegal logging,” WWF, April 16, 2013.
Smugglers from North Korea are smuggling boxes full cigarettes into China and earning up to $8 per box. Each box consists of 500 cigarettes produced in North Korea. One smuggler told a reporter that he is able to make up to $8 per box when sold illegally on the black market in China.
China has over 300 million smokers and consumers one-third of all cigarettes worldwide.
In North Korea, a pack of cigarettes costs about $0.50 (3,500 North Korean Won) on the black market. Popular brands of tobacco in the country are Gohyang, Craven, and Yeomyeong.
Source: Sung Hui Moon, “North Korean Smugglers Cash in as More Chinese Light Up,” Radio Free Asia, April 3, 2013.
A study published in Mexico found that the Sinaloa Drug Cartel controls up to 80 percent of the illegal methamphetamine market in the United States.
Researcher Jose Luis Leon from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico found that the trafficking of meth is a global industry.
The cartels first purchase precursor chemicals such as ephedrine and pseudophedrin from supplies in Asia. The two products are banned in Mexico and must be purchased abroad. After the chemicals are shipped to ports in Mexico and Guatemala, it is then transported to meth labs in Michoacan, Jalisco, Sonora and Sinaloa.
From the labs, the meth is smuggled across the border and sold in the United States.
The money generated from the US sales is then sent to China, where it is used to purchase additional drug presursors. Mexican drug cartels are also using the funds to purchase domestica appliances and other consumer goods and legally selling those products back in Mexico, thus successfully laundering the illicit revenue.
Source: Santiago Wills, “This Mexican Cartel Controls 80 Percent of the U.S. Meth Trade, Study Finds,” ABC News, April 2, 2013.
