Five people between the ages of 36 and 64 were arrested and another 19 were investigated as collaborators in up to 13 locations
Five people were arrested by members of the Nature Protection Service Team (Seprona) of the Civil Guard of Albacete, within the framework of operation ‘Berto’. They are members of a criminal group dedicated to the distribution of veterinary medicines subject to medical prescription, for food-producing animals, regardless of any clinical criteria, animal health and without responding to a rational use of this type of medicine.
In addition, another 19 people were investigated, whose actions would have facilitated the commission of the facts investigated, as alleged perpetrators of crimes against public health, false documents and intrusion, the Civil Guard reported in a press release.
The detainees, aged between 36 and 64 years old and residents of Albacete, had the collaboration of the rest of the people under investigation, professionals who worked in various towns in the province of Albacete, as well as in the provinces of Ciudad Real, Cuenca , Toledo, Region of Murcia and Alicante. The activity extended to up to 13 provinces, even reaching towns in Barcelona, Badajoz or Navarra. Among these were not only livestock farms, but also individuals, veterinary clinics, pharmacies, animal health product stores and other businesses in the sector.
The investigations began when Seprona learned, through the Health Planning, Management and Inspection Service of the Provincial Health Delegation in Albacete, that a significant number of suspicious prescriptions from the same veterinarian had been detected, related to a company dedicated to for the sale of veterinary products.
The suspicions were based on the high number of prescriptions signed by this veterinarian, as well as the coincidence in the prescription dates and the volume of their recipients, since there were more than 400 from different provinces.
During the investigation it was found that the investigated company, in addition to the facilities where its headquarters were located, used an industrial warehouse that was not controlled by any of the competent administrations in the matter (livestock and health), where they carried out the storage of products that they later distributed.
‘modus operandi’
The search of the headquarters and the warehouse used by this company allowed access to documentation with which it was discovered that the company would have been dispensing veterinary medicines, subject to medical prescription, for food-producing animals, many of them antibiotics, without following clinical criteria, animal health and without responding to a rational use of this type of medication.
The company’s sales representatives had, among their work documentation, exact information on veterinary drugs and antibiotics, with notes on dosage, active ingredients, prioritization of treatment, waiting times for meat, milk and eggs, data necessary for prescription vet.
This ‘modus operandi’ was completed with the performance of the detained veterinarian, whose function was to sign all the prescriptions that were presented to him and that came from treatments applied outside the knowledge of the veterinarians responsible for the farms, or from treatments that they refused to prescribe some veterinarians, when requested. This doctor received remuneration for these services that came from the payment per prescription made and discounts on the acquisition of products from the investigated company.
In addition, it was detected that, on some occasions at the request of the owners of the animals, the company ignored the mandatory veterinary action, de facto turning the workers of this company into the true prescribers of the medicines, which were subsequently validated by the veterinarians. farm managers. Therefore, those involved in these events have also been investigated in this operation.
The process was completed with the collaboration of two of the pharmacists who guaranteed the correct dispensing of this type of veterinary medicine, omitting the control functions that are legally assigned, thereby clearly hindering the inspection and control work of the various administrations. competent in the matter.
The process would have a purely economic purpose, since not only would the benefits of the commercial margins of the sales of ordinary medicines be obtained, but it would also allow this company to meet certain objectives and sales discounts established contractually with various pharmaceutical laboratories, and with access to the agreed discounts.
In the different actions of the ‘Berto’ operation, directed by members of the Nature Protection Service Team of the Civil Guard of Albacete, the rest of the personnel of the Seprona Section and the Investigation Team have collaborated. Technological Unit (Edite) of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Albacete Command, as well as Specialist personnel from the Engineering Department of the Criminalistics Service of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard, based in Madrid.
The proceedings instructed by the criminal acts investigated by members of the Benemérita, were delivered to the Investigating Court Number 1 of Albacete that has heard the case.
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