Thursday, April 21 2005 13:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: A major Internet drug ring allegedly headed by two Indian nationals has been broken up and 20 people arrested in the US and four other countries, the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has announced.

"The international Internet drug ring has been shattered, the traffickers arrested and Indian-Australian-Costa Rican-Canadian cyber criminal alliances shut down," Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen P Tandy said.

Over the past 48 hours, there were 20 arrests in eight US cities and four foreign countries. Domestically, arrests occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Ft Lauderdale and Sarasota, Florida; Abilene and Tyler, Texas; New York, NY; Greenville, SC; and Rochester, New York. Internationally, arrests were made in San Jose, Costa Rica; New Delhi, Agra, and Mumbai.

The arrests were the results of Operation 'Cyber Chase,' a yearlong Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation that targeted international Internet pharmaceutical traffickers operating in the United States, India, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.

These e-traffickers distributed drugs worldwide using "rogue" Internet pharmacies.

Operation Cyber Chase began after the DEA Philadelphia Division identified a Philadelphia-based international Internet drug trafficking organization, allegedly headed by Indian nationals Brij Bhusan Bansal and Akhil Bansal. Five members of the Bansal family have been charged.

The Bansal Organization allegedly repackaged controlled substances smuggled into the US from India and other countries and distributed them throughout the US and the world.

Since July 2003, the Bansal Organization allegedly distributed approximately 2.5 million dosage units of Schedule II-V pharmaceutical controlled substances including Vicodin (hydrocodone), anabolic steroids, and amphetamines per month.

"For too long the Internet has been an open medicine cabinet with cyber drug dealers illegally doling out a vast array of narcotics, amphetamines, and steroids. In this first major international enforcement action against online rogue pharmacies and their sources of supply, we have logged these traffickers off the Internet," Tandy said.

Operation 'Cyber Chase' targeted major pharmaceutical drug traffickers who allegedly shipped Schedule II-V pharmaceutical controlled substances including narcotics, amphetamines, and anabolic steroids directly to buyers of all ages without the medical examination by a physician required by US law.

These e-traffickers used more than 200 websites to illicitly distribute pharmaceutical controlled substances.

In early April, the Grand Jury in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and in the Eastern District of New York issued indictments, which seeks forfeiture of 41 bank accounts, 26 in the US and the remaining in Cyprus, India, Singapore, the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, West Indies, Antigua and Ireland.

Illegal financial transactions listed in the indictment total more than $ 6 million with restitution sought for that amount.