Source: Olhar Direto - MT - CAPA - 06/11/2009

Six points with suspicion of commercialization and clandestine manufacture of medicines and cosmetics were targets for the fulfillment of search and seizure warrants this Friday (6) by the Civil Police with the Health Surveillance. Four people were arrested and will answer for the crime of manufacturing and selling products without registration by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). The operation was called “Health”.

Several boxes of cosmetics manufactured without authorization, equipment, raw materials and cans with chemicals were seized by the police. The goods were sent to the shed of the Secretary of State for Health, in the Industrial District, where they will be cataloged and distributed.

In the Da Manga district, in Várzea Grande, the police arrested Francisco Santos da Costa Campos, who was selling cosmetics without Anvisa registration. Through the packaging, the police arrived at the manufacturer in Cuiabá, in the Campos Elísios neighborhood, in the Grande Terceiro region. The production was commanded by the couple Orozino Alves Cortez and Huda Moraes Araújo Cortez, who produced medicines for therapeutic and cosmetic purposes without authorization from Anvisa, distributed at retail points in Greater Cuiabá.

In 2007, suspect Orozino responded to a police investigation at the Consumer Police Station for the same crime and closed his establishment. At another point, in the Costa Verde neighborhood, in Várzea Grande, Marli Aparecida Laranja Moreira was fined in the act with several raw materials, equipment and chemical components used in the product formulas. In 2007, the suspect's brother was also charged with the same practice.

Chief Nabor Fortunato Dias reported that counterfeiting, adulteration and commercialization of products intended for therapeutic or medicinal purposes is considered a heinous crime under the Brazilian Penal Code (article 273), with a penalty of 10 to 15 years in prison. Investigations started 5 months ago.

Inspection points are located in the Costa Verde, Ponte Nova, Da Manga and Costa Verde neighborhoods in Várzea Grande and one in the Campos Elísios neighborhood in Cuiabá. Five were for marketing and one for manufacturing.