French customs officers have discovered 1.2 million doses of counterfeit aspirin hidden in a consignment of tea that arrived from China, the largest-ever seizure of fake medicines in the European Union.
France’s ministry of the economy announced the massive haul on Saturday after authorities seized the fake medicines in the northwestern port of Le Havre on May 17, reports AFP.
The powder was mostly glucose and contained no active ingredients, the ministry said in a statement. It was not immediately clear where the fake medicine was produced.
The counterfeit drugs were believed to be bound for a Spanish company based in the Balearic Islands for distribution in the Iberian peninsula, the south of France and French-speaking Africa, the ministry said.