Source: Diário de Pernambuco Online - Recife / PE - 09/12/2009

The Federal Police (PF) in conjunction with the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), Pernambuco Health Surveillance Agency (Apevisa) and the Health Surveillance Agency of Caruaru (Visa) yesterday banned 20 pharmacies caught selling drugs irregularly or storing drugs in inappropriate places.

The total number of drugs collected weighs up to half a ton.
Eight people found in the establishments were detained for the formalization of judicial police procedures and, depending on the case, will be fined in the act for falsifying, corrupting, adulterating or altering a product intended for therapeutic or medicinal purposes and without registration with the health surveillance agency or acquired establishment without a license from the health authority. The penalty is 10 to 15 years in prison. They can also be self-assessed for drug trafficking, since certain substances can cause physical or psychological dependence (penalty of five to 15 years) and for smuggling (imprisonment of one to four years). The suspects will be referred to the Judge Plácido de Souza Penitentiary and the Buíque Female Penal Colony where they will be available to the State and Federal Courts.

The drugs were taken to the Federal Police Station. The owners of the establishments, which have been banned for 90 days and may have their activities permanently canceled, will pay fines ranging from R $ 1.500 to R $ 1.500,000.

The operation, called antipyretic, in reference to the drug used to fight fever, started with investigations that have been carried out for three months. Several complaints pointed to irregularities in the sale of counterfeit Viagra, Cialis, used for erectile dysfunction; prohibited import of Pramil and Eroxil, coming from Paraguay and Bolivia and which are prohibited from being sold in Brazil and of controlled drugs without registration in a specific book and sold in parallel without a prescription, in addition to theft of cargo theft and inappropriate storage.

From the Newsroom of DIARIODEPERNAMBUCO.COM.BR