THOUSANDS of illegally imported tablets have been seized by UK Border Agency officers at Newcastle Airport.

Around 80,000 Sildenafil tablets - which can be sold as Viagra - were seized at the end of last week by officers carrying out checks on cargo being transported by secure road freight to Newcastle, having initially been flown into London’s Heathrow from Mumbai, India.

The load was described as food additives, but closer examination revealed the tablets to be Sildenafil.

It is not known whether the tablets are genuine or counterfeit, although a high proportion of medicines illegally imported are fake.

The confiscated tablets, which weighed about 107kg and were being transported in eight crates, will now be destroyed.

Fred Simmons, Assistant Director of the UK Border Agency, welcomed the seizure.

He said: “Medicines smuggled into the country illegally are often found to be counterfeit and as such pose a huge health risk to the end user.

“Anyone tempted to buy these illegitimate products, whether over the Internet or otherwise, should also remember that the gangs smuggling these goods often have links to serious organised crime.

“This haul shows how robust the checks we carry out at Newcastle Airport are. We search for a range of items, including drugs and weapons as well as cigarettes and tobacco, to keep our border secure.

“The UK Border Agency, in partnership with other agencies, will not hesitate to take strong action against those involved in smuggling.”

Head of Enforcement at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, Mick Deats, added: “The dangers of buying medicines from illegitimate sources are that you just don’t know what you are taking.

"The dosages could be either too high or too low, contain no pharmaceutical ingredient or a totally different ingredient to that stated.

“Illegal suppliers have no quality control or standards to abide by, and people who purchase medicine from these sources will never know where the tablets they are putting in their mouths have actually originated or what they contain.

“If customers could see the filthy conditions in which some of these medicines were being transported, stored and handled, they wouldn’t touch them."