Hanoi - Police in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday broke up a major counterfeit drug ring, officials said Friday.

"We have never broken such a big case before," said Lt Col Vu Hong Nam of the Ho Chi Minh City police.

Nam said Mai Cong Phu, 56, was arrested Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City while transporting a batch of counterfeit drugs for sale. Police found hundreds of kilograms of contraband in Phu's home, as well as drug-manufacturing equipment.

Police Lt Col Tran Si Quang, the lead investigator on the case, said agents had been tracking Phu's operation for a year to develop information. He said Phu had been selling at least 20 kilograms of counterfeit drugs a day, including pills and intravenous drugs.

Nam said police had arrested people for trafficking counterfeit drugs before, but had never caught anyone who both manufactured and distributed them.

Local media quoted Truong Quoc Cuong, head of Vietnam's Drug Administration, as saying that government testing of random samples showed the rate of counterfeit drugs in the market was at its highest ever. He said the rate had gone from 0.06 per cent in 2000 to 0.21 per cent in 2008.

Under Vietnamese law, those who produce and/or trade in fake goods, including medicines, can be sentenced to anywhere from two years in prison to the death penalty, depending on the seriousness of the crime.

Vietnamese police conducted raids on counterfeit drug suppliers in 2008 under an Interpol initiative to coordinate enforcement efforts across Southeast Asia. The World Health Organization estimates 20,000 people die each year due to use of fake medicines. (dpa)