The illegal online counterfeit drugs trade may be worth as much as €70bn a year worldwide — with Irish sales unwittingly helping to fund crime gangs as far afield as Russia and China.

In a concerted crackdown on the sale of black market medicines last week, gardaí and customs officials uncovered over 192,000 different types of fake medicines, worth over €600,000, with the help of Interpol and some 200 national drug bodies.