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Officials in New York have announced that they shut down 72 websites illegally selling prescription-only slimming pills.

In the international operation Pangea II, which saw Interpol, U.S agencies and task forces in 2 dozen countries work together, 751 websites were monitored and 72 were shut down. Officials investigated over 16,000 packages of potentially counterfeit medication, leading to a haul of almost 167,000 counterfeit and illegal pills. These included not only diet pills but antibiotics and steroids.

In total, 22 people have been taken into custody to be questioned over the findings of the operation.

There are believed to be many websites operating on the internet which claim to sell genuine Reductil, Xenical and herbal pills, which have actually been stolen or manufactured in illegal factories. Both Reductil and Xenical should only be sold with a legitimate doctor’s prescription.

The investigators said that many of the slimming pills seized where thought to be placebos or contain dangerous levels of the active ingredient used in the genuine forms of the medication. They also warned that counterfeit pills were often cut with dangerous other substances.

Interpol Secretary-General praised the operation, saying that officials have proved that the internet is not an ‘anonymous safe-haven’ for those using it for criminal purposes.