Rome, July 16. (askanews) – The Carabinieri of the NAS of Bari, in the context of activities aimed at countering the phenomenon of scams in the National/Regional Health Service, under delegation from the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Apulian capital, during today's morning, implemented 44 decrees of personal and home searches (in which the crimes referred to in articles 416, 81, 640 co2 n.1, 480, 319 and 321 of the criminal code are contested) against pharmaceutical company owners, drug sales representatives, pharmacies, 
specialist doctors and general practitioners as well as 17 orders for the presentation of documentation to as many pharmaceutical companies located throughout the country, issued by the investigating AG.
The investigative context originates from the discovery of some packages of medicines in an associated practice of general practitioners, prescribed with false prescriptions. Subsequent investigations made it possible to identify an associative group made up of a series of characters such as promoters, pharmaceutical company owners, pharmacists and compliant doctors who have devised and implemented a complex corruption mechanism based on the prescription of drugs for unsuspecting patients, subsequent shipment of the prescriptions to pharmacies affiliated with the various AASSLL and prescription of drugs with the participation of foreign citizens, creating a turnover of at least 20 million euros and tax damages being quantified for fraud to the detriment of the National Health Service.
The execution of the search decrees against natural and legal persons and the notifications of the contextual exhibition orders at various pharmaceutical companies located throughout the national territory, will serve to verify the investigative hypotheses and strengthen the elements acquired by the military operating during the investigation activities and in particular from the analysis of data relating to the prescriptions of medicinal specialties charged to the NHS, supplied by the Puglia Region, as well as from the discovery of thousands of drugs thrown in the waste or burned in the open countryside.
The measures concerned objectives included in the provinces of Bari, Brindisi, BAT, Foggia, Naples, Rome, Avellino, Salerno, Milan, Imperia, Turin, Ancona, Potenza and Catania, and the operations were conducted by the Carabinieri of the NAS of Bari, supported by colleagues from the various territorial branches of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Health, in collaboration with soldiers of the competent Provincial Carabinieri Commands.
NAS - Ministry of Health - 17 July 2020
Note: Thousands of medicines thrown in the garbage or burned in the open countryside have been found. There were antivirals and anticancer drugs discovered in the waste or in the open countryside by the Carabinieri of the Nas of Bari.
Since the medicines could not be delivered to the patients, because they did not exist, many were thrown in the waste or in the open countryside, while others were sent abroad, to Albania.
Related news: Statement by Marco Cossolo, president of Federfarma, on the Nas Bari operation
NAS News: The NAS of Catanzaro, at the end of a check carried out in a Calabrian pharmacy, reported a person to the Judicial Authority for having detained die-cut medicines and other medicines that had expired. In fact, during the inspection, the military found 89 packs of irregular medicines, for a value of around 3,000 euros.
The NOS of Livorno reported the owner of a Tuscan pharmacy to the Public Prosecutor's Office. The military, in fact, going to execute a seizure decree issued by the Court of Trento relating to two bags of food supplements already subject to preventive seizure, found that the woman had already proceeded, on her own initiative, to destroy the product. The suspect risks imprisonment from six months to three years and a fine of up to 516 euros.
