The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently took criminal aim at a flood of websites alleged to be illegally peddling potentially dangerous and unapproved prescription drugs to consumers.

In conjunction with other international regulatory and law enforcement agencies, the sting targeted 4,402 websites. Led by INTERPOL, the effort was also hailed as a global cooperative to combat the unlawful sale and distribution of illegal and counterfeit medical products on the Internet.

"Preventing illegal Internet sales of dangerous unapproved drugs is critical to protecting consumers' health," said George Karavetsos, director of the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations. "Operation Pangea IX demonstrates the FDA's continuing commitment to stand united with our international partners to protect consumers in the United States and throughout the world from criminals who put profit above the health and safety of consumers."

Operation Pangea Aims to Take Drugs off Market

Authorities stress the goal of Operation Pangea IX was to identify the makers and distributors of the illegal drugs in question, then figure out ways to remove them from the supply chain.

The FDA's Office of criminal Investigations, Office of Regulatory Affairs and Center for Drug Evaluation and Research were among the agencies taking part in enforcement actions, which were conducted from May 31 to June 7.

A recent FDA led task force probe into the distribution of the weight loss drug DNP led to a recent guilty plea from Adam Alden, a Bakersfield man charged with illegally selling the drug across state lines. A Rhode Island man who purchased the drug over the Internet from Alden and others died in late 2013 of DNP ingestion.

FDA Issues Warning Letters to Other Websites

In addition to suspending all the websites, the FDA also issued warning letters to 53 other domains for offering unapproved and misbranded prescription drug products for sale to U.S. consumers far and wide.

Over the course of the investigation, FDA officials screened and seized drug products received through IMFs in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. In all, 797 products were detained that could ultimately be destroyed or denied entry into the U.S.

Preliminary findings reveal U.S. consumers purchased unapproved drug products from abroad for such conditions as depression, narcolepsy, high cholesterol, glaucoma and asthma.

In addition to health risks, illegal online pharmacies pose risks to consumers including credit card fraud, identity theft and computer viruses.

The FDA advises consumers to report suspect dealings or criminal activity at www.fda.gov/oci.

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