Source: UOL - São Paulo / SP - NEWS - 21/07/2010

Special for UOL News
In Porto Alegre

The Federal Highway Police (PRF) has intensified enforcement on the routes used by smugglers to illegally place drugs sold in Argentina and Uruguay on the Brazilian market.

On Tuesday (20), agents located more than 160 thousand doses of medicine on a bus from São Luiz Gonzaga, in the north of Rio Grande do Sul. The collective was approached in Santa Cruz do Sul, about 120 kilometers from Porto Alegre. It was the biggest bust of the year.

Much of the seized merchandise was of Argentine and Bolivian origin, with packaging almost identical to that of their national counterparts. According to agents of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the cargo could be easily distributed without the consumer noticing the fraud.

Last week, a cargo had been seized on a bus that made the Chuí-Porto Alegre route. In this case, the crime was aggravated because the drug that was being transported, of Chilean manufacture, does not have the authorized import to Brazil.

Anvisa's president, Dirceu Raposo, showed concern about the high incidence of seizures and asked the population to report establishments suspected of selling contraband drugs.

“Often smuggling is not even done by the sacoleiro, but by the distributors themselves who legally sell products. It is a practice that has become trivializing in a worrying way ”, said Raposo.

One of the alerts made by Anvisa is that the sale of contraband drugs is no longer restricted to street vendors and street markets. The agency's head of intelligence, Adilson Bezerra, maintains that large gangs are replacing smugglers' smugglers across the country's borders.

“More and more of these charges enter Brazil through organized crime, since the practice has become an attractive business. It's not a street vendor anymore, ”says Bezerra. According to data from Anvisa, there are about 80 thousand pharmacies in operation in Brazil. The agency advocates restrictions on the rules for opening and operating establishments, as a way to defend the population.

Bezerra said that Anvisa has already closed 22 pharmacies in Rio Grande do Sul this year for illegal sale of smuggled drugs from Paraguay. In 2010, seven people were arrested on charges of the crime, which can serve sentences of 15 to XNUMX years in prison.

According to the PRF, most of the seized drugs are for sexual stimulants or for weight loss, in addition to anabolic steroids. Last year, according to the agency's superintendence in Rio Grande do Sul, 316 tons of drugs smuggled across the country were seized - much of it entered the borders with Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia.

In Paraguay, according to the PRF, it is possible to order large quantities of pills and ampoules of medicines without effect, in addition to thermometers, pressure gauges and stethoscopes. The Regional Pharmacy Council estimates that many state pharmacies are illegally sourcing abroad.

The Chairman of the Board, Juliano da Rocha, informed that the last inspection carried out together with Anvisa found irregularities in seven pharmacies. The operation was carried out in May in cities in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre.

According to Rocha, in addition to smuggling some pharmacies also supply themselves with stolen cargo. The irregular loads were collected, but no establishment was closed.