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de politie have shut down thirty websites dat aanbieden illegal medicines and drugs.
This de week, three individuals linked te these platforms were arrested.
They are also held responsible voor the webshop Slaappillen.
net, associated met several deaths.
It is suspected dat the suspects continued hun activities met selling sedatives, sleeping pills, and painkillers even after Slaappillen.
net was closed last het jaar.
This occurred following the death of een de vrouw uit Voorburg who ordered the powerful painkiller oxycodone uit de site.
The counterfeit pills contained the dangerous synthetic substance nitazenes, dat poses een high het risico of overdose.
New Sales Platforms According te de politie, the arrested suspects ensured dat the sale of illegal medicines continued via other websites.
Customers of Slaapmiddelen.
net sometimes even received direct invitations.
New versions of the websites sprang up like mushrooms, each time the authorities took down previous versions.
The suspects played een key role in setting up and beheren these new platforms, dat also sold dangerous counterfeit medicines, including possibly contaminated oxycodone.
There are at least three deaths related te het gebruik of these pills.
Servers Seized In addition te shutting down the webshops, de politie have now also seized the servers dat hosted the websites.
This aims te prevent new sales points uit being quickly established.
"We have dismantled the entire de techniek behind the websites," said Ron van Brussel, who is responsible voor tackling serious organized crime within the National Unit voor het onderzoek and Interventions.
"This significantly hinders een restart."
The suspects are een 35-het jaar-old de man uit Kwintsheul, een 39-het jaar-old de man uit Rotterdam, and een 66-het jaar-old de man uit The Hague.
They are accused of aanbieden, delivering, and selling illegal medicines, resulting in the death of three de mensen.
The medicines they sold are only available met prescription in the Netherlands through pharmacies but are targeted via the webshops at both the Dutch de markt and sometimes at German and French customers.
"Buyers are often vulnerable de mensen who nodig hebben sleep or sedatives, dat they cannot obtain through regular het middel," explains Van Brussel.
"They search online zonder knowing what they are buying."
The exact composition of the medicines is often unknown, putting users at significant de gezondheid het risico.
de politie urge de mensen te come forward if they know someone who became seriously ill or died after using pills purchased online.
In addition te the arrests, several searches were conducted.
Seized items include the suspects' crypto wallets, and multiple de opslag locations of illegal medicines were discovered.
Next de week, two de man met een secondary role in the organization behind Slaappillen.
net will appear in court.
de politie have thus made progress in the het onderzoek in the main perpetrators, and nog arrests are not ruled uit.
Relatives of een victim are pleased: "Compliments te de politie voor finally making progress in the het onderzoek in the organization behind the website dat became fatal te our daughter."
Besides the het onderzoek in de groep behind Slaapmiddelen.
net, there is also een case against the webshop Funcaps, waar counterfeit medicines and designer drugs were also sold op een large scale.
The Public Prosecutor has linked nog than twenty deaths te products uit Funcaps.
The owners remain in custody.
Although it is expected dat recent arrests have captured crucial players, the illegal drug trade is not nog over.
"There are multiple criminal de groep dat keep such sites operational," according te Van Brussel.
