Covid-19: From miracle cures to fake sprays, EU cops join global crackdown

A magnified coronavirus germ illustration sits beside laboratory glassware during coronavirus vaccine research work inside the Pasteur Institute laboratories in Lille, France. Criminals are seeking to take advantage from the mayhem as the global economy takes a battering not seen in decades, the outcome of severe restrictions on businesses and households by governments desperately trying to contain a pandemic that’s killed almost 17,000 people worldwide. — Bloomberg

The European Union’s law enforcement arm helped spearhead a global crackdown on gangsters peddling a “staggering amount” of fake products online linked to the Covid-19 virus, according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Europol, which coordinates the fight against organised crime in the 27-nation EU, was part of an operation in which more than 4.4 million units of illicit pharmaceuticals were seized, 37 organised-crime groups were dismantled and 121 arrests were made, von der Leyen said after a call on Tuesday with the agency’s executive director Catherine De Bolle.