Arrested a pharmacist and three of its workers in Torremolinos for illegally distributing large amounts of opioid | Spain
His pharmacy is a reference in a city as tourist as Torremolinos (Malaga, 70,933 inhabitants). Its billing is around five million euros per year and the business is going well. But on one of the last visits, the inspections of the Ministry of Health saw that even with those figures there was something strange in the stores: they found columns of boxes that reached the roof, The majority of an opioid called Tramadolwhich was impossible for him to have so much exit on the Costa del Sol. They made a report, transferred him to the Prosecutor’s Office and This alerted the National Police. An investigation has now discovered a large -scale plot of sale. There are five detainees, including the pharmacist – a 58 -year -old man – and three of his employees, for the crimes of money laundering and against public health. They have been intervened more than 250,000 pills and 223,000 euros in cash, a good part hidden in stuffed bears.
The investigation started in the middle of last year, after the health inspectors gave the alert voice. Group II of the Specialized and Violent Crime Unit of the local police station in Torremolinos-Benalmádena got to work and the first thing they discovered was the role as an intermediary that a libyan citizen who had fake documentation from Colombia and on which a European arrest and delivery order (OEDE) by the Swedish authorities, who were looking for drug trafficking. The main medication with which this and other people were operating is Tramadol, an analgesic of synthetic opiatic type used to treat moderate and acute pain. Its continued use in high doses, in addition to addiction, generates a state of euphoria similar to that of heroin. Therefore, it is becoming a serious health problem in numerous African countries. The Boko Haram fighters and the Islamic State also take it, so it is known as jihadist pill.
The researchers gradually pulling the thread and found how the network operated. The leader was the head of the pharmacy and one of its employees, of maximum confidence because it has been in the job for more than 20 years. In order not to attract attention, both were in charge of what in police argot is called Pitufear The orders of the medication, that is, instead of making a large one they made many very small to different platforms, websites and companies. The report of the Junta de Andalucía It reflected the purchase of up to 36,000 containers without accrediting the legal distribution with its corresponding recipe. It was, in fact, a management that was carried out in parallel to the legal business: those responsible for the pharmacy’s purchases or knew it. Therefore, both the flow of money and all the accounting was separate.
The merchandise was stored in the pharmacy facilities. The boxes, as the health inspectors checked, accumulated to the roof in the stores. The majority were from Tramadol, whose destination was mainly Libya, where its price multiplied by up to 20: of the six euros that cost a box to the pharmacist, there could exceed one hundred. The investigation has revealed that only with this medicine billed around 30,000 euros every six weeks, that is, about 240,000 euros per year. And that the network had operated at least five years. « The economic volume is very important, » insists research sources. « The leader is a rather relevant pirate and was already well known in the pharmaceutical world, » they add.
Both this and other products were sold to different parts of the planet through intermediaries. The main markets were Libya and other countries in the Middle East, as well as the Southeast Asia. Also North Africa, especially Morocco. There also sent large amounts of other medications such as Clovate, a cream that is used to reduce the effects of inflammation on skin conditions and that also allows clearing it to clear it, so it is required by women of that country.
Once the operation of the plot was known, in the middle of last March there was the first arrest, that of a Libyan citizen who served as an intermediary. He lived in Marbella and was charged with crimes against public health, documentary falsehood and traffic security. 104,000 doses of synthetic opioid were intervened and after its disposal of the judicial authority, it decreed its entry into prison. Later, last week, the researchers arrested the head of the pharmacy and two of its workers, in addition to an employee, who is investigated. They are charged with crimes against public health and money laundering and are released, although their passport has been withdrawn and have the obligation to sign in the judicial headquarters on the 1st and 15th of each month. In the records made after their arrests, the more than 223,000 euros mentioned and another 140,000 pills were located.
