ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The Carabinieri Command for Health Protection (NAS) and the Customs and Monopoli Agency have concluded an extensive international operation aimed at the contrast of pharmaceutical crime and health protection called “Shield VI”, acronym for Safe Health Implementation, Enforcement and Legal Development.
The investigation, coordinated by Europol, has seen the participation of police forces, customs agencies, national anti-doping organizations and judiciary personalities of 30 countries, and has received the support of several international organizations, including the Office of the European Union for Intellectual Property (EUIPO), the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Frontex and Interpol.
For Italy, the NAS, the only national police force, has assumed a decisive role with the task of co-leader of EUROPOL, a position of primary responsibility that has allowed participation in the decision-making process taking place in the “direction” (also composed by the French National Gendarmerie, the Greek Police and the Spanish Civil Guard) that has planned the activities, as well as direct and coordinated the acceding countries in the various sectors.
In the course and success of the operation, the participation of the Agency of Customs and Monopoli has made available its territorial joints with the specific technical knowledge, the data contained in its profiling databases and analytical laboratories specialized also in the examination of pharmaceutical substances.
The operational phase, carried out from April to November 2025, focused on the contrast to the traffic of counterfeit drugs, even with doping properties, also realized in virtual mode, also contemplating the drugs presented as food supplements and illegal medical devices.
The results obtained from the various joints of the Health Protection Departments on the national territory (38 NAS, Operational Department and Nucleus Carabinieri at the Italian Pharmaco Agency) have allowed the opening of 91 investigative activities, for a total of 265 subjects reported to the Judicial Authority and 3 arrests; the discovery of 2 underground laboratories and 2 illegal structures of assembling of active principles, and criminals.
In addition, around 2,800 packs and 18,000 posological units (compressed, capsules, vials…) have been seized, containing active ingredients of various therapeutic indications (maging, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, medicines for erectile dysfunction, botulino…), as well as 1,800 packs and 4,500 posological units of pharmaceutical products with doping action, intended for use in sports use. The commercial value of all seizures reaches the figure of more than 550.000 euros.
The analysis of operating data has allowed to highlight an illicit traffic of drugs involving different countries, as well as to confirm the presence, among the drugs subject of illegal traffic, of preparations containing the oxycodone analgesic drug, condition also linked to an important traffic of falsified pharmaceutical prescriptions, as well as products containing semaglutide and botulino, often intended for use in unauthorized aesthetic centers.
It should be noted, in particular, that joint activities with the Agency have led to the seizure of over 120,000 units of drugs (compresses, capsules, vials, etc.), also to doping action, at the major sorting hubs placed and couriers on the Italian territory.
A major area of investigation is the fight against the phenomenon of doping in both amateur and professional sports activities. The anti-doping investigation inspectors, present in all the NAS located on the entire national territory and specially trained for the specific activity, performed 49 anti-doping tests during sports activities, controlling 145 athletes of which 3 were positive.
10 athletes were also checked during “out of competition” testing, detecting 4 positives for the use of doping substances.
Relevant is also the result of the activity of vigilance of online sales of drugs: it has been carried out to almost 100 obscurement measures issued by the Ministry of Health at the expense of websites that proposed the illegal sale of drugs, identified thanks to the activity of telematic surveillance carried out by the Carabinieri Command for Health Protection also through the specific unit established for the aspects of cyber-crime.
Overall, Operation “SHIELD VI”, conducted in the territories of the various acceding countries, has allowed to identify 5 underground laboratories and 10 illegal assembly centers, conduct investigations on 43 criminal organizations, seize thousands of medicines, raw materials and doping products of various kinds, for a total of more than 10 million units of drugs and drug preparations, in various pharmaceutical forms, as well as medical devices and food supplements for a total value of 33 million The anti-doping activity has, instead, been realized in about 11,000 controls to athletes, between “in” and “out” competition.
– photo Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
