A "health wine" named "Qing Gong Yu Jiu" was blacklisted by the former State Food and Drug Administration as early as 2015, and the manufacturer and its brand were cancelled, but it was still openly sold for two years.
A few days ago, Shenzhen police cracked this illegal "health wine" case in Guangdong and Hunan, and arrested 9 suspects, involving products worth nearly 10 million yuan.
Illegal addition of sildenafil
In September 2015, the former State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice saying that 51 enterprises were found to have illegally added sildenafil and other chemical substances in 69 kinds of "health wine" and mixed wine during law enforcement inspections in various places. "Qing Palace Imperial Wine" was listed in the notification list, and the manufacturer and brand were subsequently cancelled.
However, the Shenzhen Municipal Market Inspection Bureau found in the inventory in 2017 that this wine is still circulating in many e-commerce, social networking platforms and offline channels, and the transaction volume is not small. "Qing Palace Imperial Wine" was boasted on the Internet, claiming to have miraculous aphrodisiac effect. The product introduction also marked the words "Qing Palace Imperial Wine is made from various precious raw materials and China traditional crafts according to the secret recipe of Qing Dynasty", which deceived and misled many consumers.
At the end of 2017, the Drug Inspection Department of shenzhen public and Shenzhen Municipal Market Inspection Bureau and Alibaba Anti-counterfeiting Special Team started relevant investigations.
Police investigation found that the shop selling "Qing Gong Yu Jiu" online was located in Guangzhou, and then an operator of the shop was arrested in Haizhu District of Guangzhou, and more than 200 bottles of the wine were collected in his home. After testing, these "Qinggong Yujiu" were found to have illegally added chemical substances such as sildenafil.
According to the investigators, these "Qing Palace Royal Liquor" were produced in Changsha. After the product was blacklisted, the original manufacturer "Kangnianhua" closed down for rectification, but the inventory still flowed into the market. The original distributor of this factory clearly knows that this wine contains illegal ingredients, and dare not sell it blatantly. It is only sold to a few regular customers. Therefore, although the original manufacturer no longer exists, this wine has been continuously flowing into the market for two years.
The reporter found that the prices of these products in the market are not cheap. Take one of the "Deluxe Edition" "Qing Palace Imperial Wine" as an example. The nominal selling price on the website is 588 yuan. According to the police, the market price of 100 ml small-packed products is 128 yuan, and the price of "Qing Gong Yu Wan" with contraband is also 68 yuan/capsule, which is almost dozens of times the cost.
It is understood that sildenafil is a prescription drug, and it is illegal to add it to food or health care products. Long-term use of sildenafil is harmful to the human body, and it is extremely harmful to patients with cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and diabetes. In severe cases, it can cause myocardial infarction. Some consumers reported that after drinking "Qing Gong Yu Jiu", they had headaches, dizziness and other symptoms.
Shut down the big manufacturers and come up with small workshops.
The reporter’s investigation found that in addition to "inventory" flowing into the market, the sales staff of the original manufacturers shifted from selling products to producing and selling products, and intensified efforts to expand product lines and transfer technology to others for profit.
According to the investigators, another source of goods for this outlet in Guangzhou comes from Pimou. Pi was originally a marketer of Kangnianhua Winery. After the factory closed down, he did not give up the business, but purchased the packaging boxes and set up a small workshop in his own house to continue production. Pimou’s wine-making process is exactly the same as that of the original manufacturer, and sildenafil is added to it after purchasing medicinal liquor. In addition, Pimou not only produces "Qing Gong Yu Jiu", but also produces "Qing Gong Yu Wan" which is also illegally added.
In addition to Pi, there are other counterfeiters in "Qing Gong Yu Jiu". Tao was originally a distributor of Kangnianhua winery in Shenzhen. After the factory stopped production, Tao stole the formula and technology of the wine. After selling for a while, he transferred the technology and machine to Wen for 300,000 yuan. Subsequently, Wen and his fellow villager He set up a processing factory in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, where He was responsible for production and Wen was responsible for sales in Shenzhen.
Since August 2016, Hemou’s factory in Huizhou has been in operation, and its products have been continuously flowing into the market. Wen had a sales center in Shenzhen before, and most of the products he copied were sold to old customers.
The reporter learned that in many dealers’ purchase channels, the goods of Changsha Pimou and Shenzhen Wenmou have both. For example, the suspect Xu and his wife, who sell the wine online, sell the "Qing Gong Yu Jiu" from Wenmou and "Qing Gong Yu Wan" from Pimou. According to police investigation, Pi and Wen did not know each other.
Experts believe that there are omissions in law enforcement.
There is a problem worthy of attention in this case. After the manufacturer was sealed up, the illegal liquor in stock was not properly handled, but quietly flowed into the market. Experts believe that this is caused by omissions in the process of law enforcement.
In addition, Song Hualin, a professor at Nankai University Law School, pointed out that the "blacklist" system should not be simply exposed, but should really play an effective legal binding role. For example, through technical means, the supervision system can automatically grab keywords and keep abreast of the sales of illegal products.
Song Hualin said that the "Qing Gong Yu Jiu" illegally added with the prescription drug sildenafil was still publicly sold even though it was explicitly banned, reflecting the loopholes in drug circulation. To establish a perfect drug circulation system, each drug should have a complete "resume", and the information should be detailed to where it was produced, what channels it circulated, where it flowed, and so on.
The wine was produced and processed in a small workshop in two years, and the means of committing crimes were hidden, and it was difficult to trace the chain. Yang Zhonghua, a policeman from Shenzhen Futian Public Security Bureau, said that the suspect had strong anti-detection ability. Pimou lived in Changsha, but delivered goods more than 100 kilometers away from his place of residence, and often changed to different vehicles when he went out. According to the regulatory authorities, at present, small-scale workshop-style health care products are sold in large quantities on the Internet, and it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to trace the source of illegal clues, which is very difficult to supervise.
"To strengthen the supervision and inspection of normalization, relevant departments should not only rely on the masses to report, but also learn to take the initiative to intervene." Lv Shengzhu, a lawyer of Guangdong Rongfang Law Firm, said that only strict supervision and strict accountability can effectively plug management loopholes and build a safety barrier for public health.
Text/Xinhua News Agency