The National Police has arrested 24 people and has dismantled in several provinces an organization that would be dedicated to drug trafficking and the manufacture and sale of adulterated nutritional products with a medicinal substance withdrawn from the market a decade ago due to the serious risk caused by its intake.
As reported by the Police on Tuesday, a total of 24 arrests have been made in the towns of Alicante, Badajoz, Cádiz, Granada, Málaga, Tarragona and Toledo. Agents have seized more than eight tons of nutritional products and close to 400 kilograms of illegal drugs. They have also dismantled an illegal drug laboratory and closed a legal one due to serious sanitary deficiencies.
The detainees, who belonged to an organization made up of two criminal groups intertwined with each other, are charged with a crime against public health, against consumers, documentary falsification and belonging to a criminal organization.
The organization had created its own brand of protein and altered its content. They also manufactured and prepared “natural” products that included drugs with a product that the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products withdrew from the market in 2013 due to the serious risk that its intake causes to health.
The investigations began when the agents received a communication from the Bulgarian Attaché Office in Spain, indicating that the shipment of a large quantity of anabolic drugs via parcel company to the Cádiz area had been detected.
After a first analysis, it was possible to identify a franchise of supplement stores with a presence in Cádiz, Málaga and Granada. A short time later, they discovered that the organization had more than a dozen points of sale that were used as a distribution platform for medicines, anabolics, and hormones.
Although at first the investigations focused on the group linked to the franchise, dedicated to the sale of anabolic products, the agents found that they also sold a product labeled as natural that actually contained the withdrawn drug substance.
In this way, a second organized group with headquarters in Toledo and with connections in Badajoz was located. This was dedicated to manufacturing and marketing nutritional products in sports supplement stores.
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 operation, the agents arrested 24 people, 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 were carried out in the same provinces.
In total, the agents have proceeded to seize more than 2.5 million doses of illegal drugs (approximately 400 kilos), eight tons of sports supplementation products immobilized for consumer fraud, 390,000 euros, 690,000 euros blocked in bank accounts, 24,000 euros in cryptocurrencies, four seized vehicles, 53 immobilized vehicles and 25 immobilized properties. He has also revealed a total heritage of 7,500,000 euros.
