ANCONA – In a joint operation, the Financiers of the Provincial Command of Ancona and the staff of the Police Headquarters of the Doric capital, they seized around 1,600 products, including counterfeit drugs, alcohol and cosmetics, in a minimarket in the central Corso Carlo Alberto.
The service operation is part of the control plan called “high impact” arranged by the Ancona Police Headquarters and which, in this case, saw the involvement, in detail, of the Administrative Team of the Police Headquarters and the soldiers of the local Guardia di Finanza Group.
During the inspection, it was discovered a 38 year old non-EU citizen, engaged in barbering activities without the required authorizations, who attempted to hide inside a piece of furniture to escape identification – which promptly occurred by the operating Police Force. The intervention allowed the discovery and subsequent seizure of a real sample of medicines imported from Nigeria, alcoholic products without the state label and cosmetics containing prohibited substances which are highly harmful to the health of potential consumers.
The seized medicines, labeled in English and French, were in fact without the prescriptions required by the Consumer Code and not traced by the Medicines Agency; these include over 230 bottles of “Viagra” in liquid form (24 litres), sold under the false name of “Herbal supplement for extra male strength“, containing sildenafil, with the promise of miraculous effects against various pathologies. Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had previously warned that the registration numbers on the seized products were falsified. Among the cosmetics, some “creams” contained hydroquinone, a substance banned in cosmetic products, while other products contained unidentified carcinogenic substances and lacked the indications in Italian required by EC Regulation 1223/2009.
Bottles of alcohol were also found and seized, with percentage volumes varying between 17% and 43%, without the state seal necessary for sale. The owner of the minimarket, a non-EU womanunable to produce the tax documentation for the
goods sold, was referred to the local Public Prosecutor’s Office for various crimes, including the violation of the Legislative Decree implementing Directive 2001/83/EC containing a community code relating to medicinal products for human use (art. 147 co. 2 Legislative Decree Legislative Decree 219/2006), trade in spoiled medicines (art. 443 of the criminal code), evasion of the assessment of excise duty on alcohol (art. 43 co.1 of Legislative Decree 504/1995) and receiving stolen goods (648 of the criminal code). Furthermore, it was reported to the Municipality of Ancona for violations of an administrative nature (Legislative Decree no. 204 of 4.12.2015).
The fiscal and administrative position of the company is still under examination and the company has also been reported to the Labor Inspectorate for employing an illegal worker, with a request for suspension of the activity.
It is represented that due to the principle of presumption of innocence, the guilt of the people subjected to investigation in relation to the events exposed will be definitively ascertained only if an irrevocable sentence of conviction occurs.
The Financial Police and the State Police reiterate their commitment to fighting the trade of illegal and counterfeit products, to safeguard the national production fabric and with the utmost respect for the health of the final consumer. Counterfeiting constitutes a multiplier of illegality, fueling not only the circuits of undeclared work and tax evasion but also those of money laundering and organized crime.
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