Indian-origin men convicted for running fake Viagra racket

LONDON: Two Indian-origin people were among four found guilty for masterminding a multi-million pound global conspiracy to sell fake Viagras over the internet.

The four have been identified as Ashish Halai (31) of Borehamwood, Gary Haywood (58) from Leicester, Ashwin Patel (24) of north London, and Zahid Mirza (45) of Ilford in Essex.

Investigators have described the plot as the biggest counterfeit medicine scam uncovered in Britain, the 'Daily Mail' reported on Tuesday.

"Some of the fake pills even got into the legitimate supply chain."

The four smuggled copies of Viagra and baldness treatments into Britain from factories in China, Pakistan and India before distributing them to customers over the net, the investigators said.

Halai, a flamboyant businessman, was the lynchpin of the British end of the operation and earned nearly five million pounds over a five-year period, according to the newspaper.

"The scale of the conspiracy was unparalleled in its depth and breadth. It was truly global and the rewards for those involved were immense," the daily quoted Sandip Patel, the government prosecutor, as telling a British court.

While Halai, who pleaded guilty at Kingston Crown Court, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half-year jail term, the other three convicts are awaiting sentence.

During an undercover operation in November 2002, the trade was exposed after customs officers intercepted a package containing fake pills addressed to fellow conspirator Haywood.

Some 117,000 fake Viagra pills were found at his home in Barwell, Leicestershire.

Haywood, 59, arranged for the pills to be smuggled through Customs in packages with false labels such as 'vitamin supplements for dogs'.

He paid as little as 25p each for the pills and charged up to 20 pound.