Ancona, minimarket sold illegal Viagra and alcohol

Ancona, 4 June 2024 – The financial police and state police discovered a minimarket in the center that was selling illegal products. Seized: Viagra, medicines, cosmetics and alcoholic products. In a joint operation, the financiers of the provincial command and the staff of the police headquarters of the Doric capital seized 1,600 products, including counterfeit drugs, alcohol and cosmetics, in a minimarket in the central Corso Carlo Alberto. The operation is part of the “high impact” control plan organized by the Ancona police station. During the inspection, a 38-year-old non-EU citizen was discovered, engaged in barbering without the required authorizations: the man attempted to hide inside a piece of furniture to escape identification, which promptly took place by the forces of police operating. The intervention made it possible to find and seize 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 false pretenses 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 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 permit necessary for sale. The owner of the minimarket, a non-EU woman, unable to show the tax documentation for the goods sold, was reported for various crimes, including trading in spoiled medicines, evading the assessment of the excise duty on alcohol and receiving stolen goods. Furthermore, you were reported to the Municipality of Ancona for violations of an administrative nature. 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 activity.