Alex Trelinski
AUTHORITIES have smashed Spain’s biggest illegal Botox trafficking network that imported illegal medication from South Korea.
Products not authorised for use due to safety concerns were ordered via websites and then used on patients by unqualified staff.
The Guardia Civil is processing complaints from potential victims with some very serious cases reported after people were given the unauthorised Botox.
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Four people have been arrested and 41 are being investigated by the Guardia.
The charge sheet consists of 53 crimes against public health, fraud, professional intrusion and membership of a criminal organisation.
The gang had a network of people and bank accounts located in different countries to launder their profits.
Four properties were searched in San Pedro de Alcantara(Malaga), Torrevieja(Alicante) and Cartagena(Murcia).
Guardia officers also raided 24 clinics and clandestine establishments in Alicante, Cadiz, Cordoba, Madrid, Malaga, and Sevilla provinces, resulting in 40 seizures of illegal medicines and health products.
Items removed included 700 vials of botulinum toxin, 275 vials of hyaluronidase, and more than 200 containers of lidocaine.
Officers also seized more than a 1,000 pre-filled syringes of hyaluronic acid as well as machines such as centrifuges used to carry out platelet-rich plasma treatments.
None of the products had any official certification with them.
A significant number of seizures of illegal medicines and medical devices, mainly from South Korea, were made at Sevilla airport.
Members of the criminal gang advertised the imported products via social media or distributed them to both official or unlicensed clinics who used unqualified staff in the field of aesthetic medicine.
