On 27 January 2020, the Carabinieri of the NAS of Milan, assisted by military personnel of the NAS of Alessandria, Turin and Cremona, in the provinces of Milan, Monza Brianza and Varese, carried out 17 local and home search decrees issued by the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Milan and ordered by the Assistant Prosecutor Dr. PEDIO Laura and by the Assistant Prosecutor Dr. CRUPI Francesca, against as many "unfaithful employees" of a large pharmaceutical distributor located in the province of Milan.
The investigations were launched in November 2019 following the complaint presented by the warehouse managers who had found large shortages of pharmaceutical products as a result of predatory activities carried out by some employees not better identified. The shortages documented by the company had been estimated at over 3.000 packages of various types of medicines - among which those with an anabolic effect and high-cost drugs - and the economic damage that emerged had been quantified at over 500.000 euros. The immediate investigative activity, initiated by the NAS of Milan and coordinated by the local AG, made it possible to identify and report 17 employees in a state of freedom for aggravated theft, surprised, thanks to the use of technical monitoring activities, to remove medicines intended for subsequent sale on the illicit market.
The Carabinieri device for Health Protection allowed investigators to:
- avoid further consequences of predatory activities. In this context, in fact, on the morning of January 27, 6 employees were caught in the act of crime while they were intent on stealing various types of drugs;
- carry out 17 personal and local search decrees ordered by the Milanese judiciary in order to find and seize the various medicinal specialties removed from the aforementioned pharmaceutical deposit over time, which, in addition to being the result of a crime, are to be considered potentially harmful to health publishes if not properly stored according to the criteria established by the manufacturer.
The investigative activity carried out has made it possible to disarticulate a group whose protracted theft activities have not only created significant economic damage to the company of which they were employees, but, given the modalities of subsequent placement of the products in the clandestine markets, have above all contributed to subtract, from the official channels, the medical devices intended for the health needs of citizens.