Through multiple raids in different cities of the country were arrested nine people who committed crimes harming a right as essential as health.
In operations carried out by the Military Gaula (Anti-Extortion and Anti-Kidnapping Group) Cundinamarca and the Attorney General's Office, eight people were arrested who were selling medicines illegally. The authorities obtained information on the alleged marketing of altered and high-cost drugs used for the treatment of highly complex diseases.
The arrests were made in Bucaramanga, Medellín, Pereira, Buga and Palmira, through 14 search procedures, which led to seven arrests by court order, one indictment and one arrest in flagrante delicto, thus dismantling a criminal organization which perpetrated the commercialization of all kinds of medicines, especially high-cost, and altered, fraudulent, expired and with special marking.
Within the modus operandi, a person was detected in the organization who worked as a nurse, and making use of his job within an elderly Home in the municipality of Palmira (Valle del Cauca); he stole the high-cost medicines that arrived as a donation for the treatment of the elderly, to be replaced by counterfeit or adulterated medicines, and the originals were marketed on the pharmaceutical black market.
In the same way, it was found that the medicines were being stored without cold chain, without reception searches, nor the adequate storage, handling and distribution conditions required for them, so they were not suitable for human consumption.
Those arrested will have to face charges of corruption of food, medical products or prophylactic material, usurpation of industrial property rights, association to commit crimes, illegal commercial exploitation and illegal appropriation of medicines.
During this operation it was possible to find approximately a ton of medicines, some of which could reach a unit cost of 22 million pesos, as well as 300 million Colombian pesos in cash, 13 thousand dollars, hard drives, cell phones, accounting documents, among others.
