The police in China have arrested over 80 suspects linked to the production and sales of fake COVID-19 vaccines.

The Xinhua News Agency reports that security forces in the Beijing, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces broke up the group led by a suspect surnamed Kong, confiscating more than 3,000 fake Covid-19 vaccines on the spot.

The sales of the fake vaccines have been on since September last year with the suspects packaging saline water in vials and peddling them as Covid-19 vaccines, locally and internationally.

Despite the government encouraging citizens to stay at home in line with health guidelines, China has ramped up efforts to vaccinate its target of 50 million people, ahead of the New Year travel rush and celebrations in China this February.

China has been vaccinating its population with vaccines approved from two companies, Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Since the virus emerged in 2019, China’s Ministry of Public Security has charged thousands of people with crimes related to the pandemic and is reported by local media to be investigating crimes related to manufacturing and selling of counterfeit vaccines.

China is no stranger to vaccine scandals, in 2016, two people who were in charge of a syndicate that sold millions of improperly stored vaccines across the country were arrested.

In 2018, Vaccines produced by Changsheng Biotechnology were discovered to be of poor standards, the company was fined $1.3 billion.

The last bust comes as countries are raising fears about the proliferation of adulterated vaccines by criminal gangs. Already, there have been claims in Nigeria about black market sales of the vaccines, prompting the government to issue warnings to all citizens not to get the vaccines from private individuals but only government-accredited offices.