Agents of the National Police have dismantled in the provinces of Alicante, Badajoz, Cádiz, Granada, Málaga, Tarragona and Toledo an organization allegedly dedicated to drug trafficking and alteration of the composition of nutritional products, some of which were marketed under brand names created ad hoc.
Article continues below
More than eight tons of nutritional products and nearly 400 kilograms of illegal drugs have been seized. In addition, an illegal drug laboratory has been dismantled and a legal one has been closed due to its serious sanitary deficiencies.
A total of 24 people have been arrested. For the exploitation of the operation, there has been the collaboration of the health and nutrition authorities, both state and autonomous communities in which it has acted.
The detainees belonged to an organization composed mainly of two intertwined criminal groups. They focused their activity, first of all, on trafficking products, especially anabolics, that came from abroad.
Second, they were in the business of defrauding buyers of nutritional products. To do this, after contacting wholesale suppliers, they created their own protein brand and, in agreement with the supplier, altered their content, even including traces of medicines, with the consequent risk to the health of those who would consume it.
After an initial analysis of the data provided, it was observed that they were related to other information that was already in the possession of the National Police and that linked some of the recipients of the products with a franchise of supplement stores, which had no presence only in Cádiz, but in a short period of time it had spread to other parts of Málaga and Granada.
They came to have more than a dozen points of sale that, after carrying out a huge amount of surveillance and follow-up, made it possible to verify that they were used as a platform for the distribution of medicines, anabolics and hormones.
As the investigation progressed, -and although at first it focused solely on the group linked to the franchise, dedicated to the acquisition, storage and sale of anabolic products- it was possible to observe how they also sold a product labeled as natural that actually contained the drug substance withdrawn by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products.
After learning that this product was being sold, police efforts focused on locating its origin. In this way, a second organized group was located whose headquarters were located in Toledo and which had connections in Badajoz.
This group manufactured and marketed through two companies, which covered the entire manufacturing process, from the synthesis of the active principle to its packaging, including labeling and its sale in sports supplement stores.
These same companies also produced other nutritional products, such as proteins and creatine, among others, on demand and with the composition specifications requested by the different clients, generally with qualities well below what was stated on the labels.
Among the clients of these manufacturing companies were the own brands created by the chain of stores of the investigated franchise.
Due to disagreements in the prices and payments of these sports supplement products between the two organizations, the production of the franchise products was moved to the province of Alicante, more specifically to a company where they intended to continue with the same operation.
Within the investigation, a point of sale was located in the Tarragona town of Reus, where it was found that they were also engaged in the sale of anabolic products.
During the exploitation of the police operation, 24 people were arrested, ten of them in the province of Malaga, seven in Cádiz, four in Toledo and one in Alicante, Badajoz and Tarragona.
In addition, 37 searches or inspections were carried out in the same provinces.
In total, the agents have proceeded to seize more than 2,500,000 doses of illegal medicinal products (approximately 400 kg), tons of sports supplementation products immobilized for consumer fraud, 390,000 euros in cash, 690,000 euros blocked in bank accounts, 24,000 euros in different cryptocurrencies, four seized vehicles, 53 immobilized vehicles and 25 immobilized properties.
A total patrimony of those investigated of approximately 7,500,000 euros has surfaced.
The detainees are charged with a crime against public health, belonging to a criminal organization, a crime against consumers and documentary falsification. ■