Police shut 30 web shops linked to counterfeit pill deaths

Thirty websites were taken offline and three men arrested earlier this week in connection to sites that sold counterfeit pills that led to the deaths of three people.

The suspects – a 35-year-old man from Kwintsheul, a 39-year-old man from Rotterdam and a 66-year-old male from The Hague – are suspected of “offering, selling and supplying illegal drugs”, including sedatives, sleeping pills and painkillers like oxycodone, which contained extremely potent synthetic opioids known as nitazenes.

Nitazenes can be many times stronger than morphine and more lethal than fentanyl.

Police say the victims bought the prescription-only pills on websites Slaappillen.net or regionapp.net shortly before they died, and are holding the suspects responsible for running them.

Whack-a-mole

Even though Slaappillen.net was taken down last year, police say the men continued to sell the counterfeit drugs through other websites, which kept popping up as soon as others were taken down.

But according to police, this time they not only took the web shops offline, but confiscated the servers they ran on.

“We have taken down the entire technology behind the websites,” Ron van Brussel told NOS. He is responsible for tackling serious organized crime at the National Investigation and Interventions Unit. “This makes it more difficult to make a restart.”

Both the servers and data have been seized for investigation, and more arrests have not been ruled out.

The police searches were carried out in five locations, including homes and a storage box in The Hague. Crypto wallets, cash and valuables were seized.

With this week’s arrests, police say the main players from the group are now in custody. But, they add, the sale of illegal drugs is far from over.

“There are several criminal groups that keep these types of sites online,” said Van Brussel.