'Mob loves fake medicine business more than drugs' -update 2

(ANSA) - Rome, December 2 - The mob makes more money on counterfeit medicine than with illegal drugs, Carabinieri Commander Cosimo Piccinno told the National Olympic Committee (CONI) Tuesday.
    "A one euro investment in narcotics yields a return of 16, one euro invested in pharmaceuticals yields 2,500. The business is worth at least 50 billion (euros) a year," he said at an anti-doping conference.
    There is a new kind of criminal on the block, which Piccinno called "the cyber-pusher".
    These belong to "the Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, and the Chinese, Japanese and Russian mobs," he said.
    He estimated 40,000 online pharmacies exist.
    "Purchases are anonymous, easy, sometimes with 60-70% discounts. There's no oversight a high risk of counterfeiting," Piccinno said.
    "Of 600 family doctors interviewed, 240 didn't know it's illegal to buy prescribed medicine online," he said.