Every year, the counterfeit pharmaceutical market generates up to $400 billion — dwarfing the global street drug trade. But the danger isn't just financial. Fake medicines may contain no active ingredients, toxic contaminants, or unregulated chemicals — and most people have no idea they're taking them.

In this episode of The Index, we speak with Oksana Pyzik, Associate Professor at UCL School of Pharmacy and founder of its Fight the Fakes Collaborating Centre, about the growing threat of counterfeit pharmaceuticals: who's buying them, who's producing them, and why criminal networks are increasingly choosing fake medicines over street drugs.

Scam call centres are no longer the work of lone fraudsters. They are sophisticated, hierarchical operations embedded within transnational organized crime networks.

In Eurasia, tens of thousands of people are estimated to work in these centres, targeting victims across Europe and beyond, and siphoning money through cryptocurrency mixers, money mules, and shell companies.

In this episode of The Index, Brian Lee, Head of Program for the Observatory of Illicit Economies in Eurasia at GI-TOC, breaks down how these operations are structured, who works in them, and why Eurasia has become a key hub for financial crime.

🔗 Explore the Global Organized Crime Index for free: ocindex.net

South Africa has deployed its military to combat gang violence and illegal mining under President Cyril Ramaphosa's Operation Prosper, targeting hotspots in the Western Cape and Gauteng. But is armed force a genuine solution or just a short-term fix?

Mark Shaw, Executive Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC), joins the Index podcast to break down what Operation Prosper means for South Africa, how it compares to past military deployments and global examples like El Salvador and Guatemala, and what success or failure will actually look like.

To learn more about organized crime in South Africa, visit the Organized Crime Index: ocindex.net