HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m.

Tonight, Local 2 Investigates exposes a new danger coming from China. Now, it's prescription medicines you may have to worry about. We've learned millions of Chinese counterfeit prescription drugs made their way to Houston. Some were destined for local pharmacies.

Tonight, undercover federal agents and prosecutors tell us what's really inside the medicine. Local 2 investigative reporter Stephen Dean discovers why this may just be the beginning of the Chinese drug danger in Houston.

Start with piles of pills in a southwest Houston storage unit. Add in hundreds of thousands hidden in a shipment headed to the Port of Houston. End with an eastside pharmacy ready to sell.

It's the recipe for Houston's new drug war -- where imported prescription pills are fake, dangerous, and you may never even know you took them.

"It is such a dangerous circumstance if these drugs actually reach the public," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Louis.

The drugs are counterfeit pharmaceuticals from China and Local 2 Investigates found in case after case, those Chinese drugs are coming to Houston.

Pharmacist James George owned a pharmacy off Interstate 10 in Jacinto City. That's until an undercover Houston task force of immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents, plus FDA investigators tracked George as he bought counterfeit Viagra pills from China.

The pills looked real. The packaging did, too. The plan -- customers wouldn't know the difference.

"He (George) ordered it at such ridiculous prices," said Louis. "I believe the price for a tablet of Viagra was 3 cents."

Louis says the legitimate price is around $10 a pill. That difference meant big profits for George, and big dangers for anyone taking the pills.

"You might get something that has none of the active ingredient," said Louis. "You might receive something that has 100 times the active ingredient."

Too much of some ingredients could be deadly.

While that's scary enough, when the Houston task force traveled to China investigating a different Internet pill supplier, they found the pill factory was actually a filthy apartment full of extra ingredients used as fillers to make the drugs.

"In place of fillers, you may have concrete," Louis said. "You may have gypsum. The coloring might actually be something that's used as paint. Those fillers when mixed with the active ingredients could have a dramatic and harmful effect."

A judge sent James George to federal prison, but he's not the only one caught bringing the fake Chinese pills to Houston.

Just last week, Amy Alrub left Houston's federal court headed to prison. Alrub plead guilty to helping arrange a shipment of more than 800,000 counterfeit Viagra pills from China to the Port of Houston. The estimated street value of the pills is around $8 million.

Undercover agents caught her as she inspected a carton of 100,000 pills. Alrub had $30,000 in a shoebox to pay for it.

In another case inside a southwest Houston storage unit, two business partners had stashed thousands of bottles of fake Viagra and Cialis pills, hoping to sell them at a Harwin accessory store.

They were caught before any unsuspecting customers could buy the fake pills.

"That's what were trying to do," said Louis. "Make sure those counterfeit drugs do not get into a legitimate supply chain."

However, we've learned of a new worry -- the Chinese market will change from drugs like Viagra and Cialis to other prescriptions like flu drugs, even cancer medicines.

"From what we can tell, they have the capacity and ability to counterfeit a whole array of prescription drugs. That is a serious concern," said Louis.

While agents have caught drug shipments, investigators say you're in the biggest danger of taking these fake medicines when you buy from bargain Internet pharmacies.

If the drugs make it into licensed pharmacies, it may be close to impossible to tell the difference.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Houston is currently prosecuting another counterfeit medicine case. It's scheduled for trial in a few weeks.