The investigative activity, which began in May 2022 and conducted jointly by the Carabinieri Investigative Unit of Pavia and the Carabinieri anti-adulteration and healthcare unit of Cremona, under the direction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Pavia, led to the identification of 8 subjects, who would be held responsible for having created a complex international trafficking network with the United States of the narcotic substance called Oxycodone, belonging to the opioid family, drugs used for pain management. These began to appear on the US market in the 1990s. At that time, a well-known American pharmaceutical company began selling oxycodone, marketed as OxyContin, claiming that it could be used to treat chronic pain without addiction problems. However, oxycodone has caused an escalation of addiction that has plagued America for at least three decades, so much so that it has been withdrawn from the American market.
Between April 2020 and 2021, the National Center for Health Statistics recorded a new boom: within a year, over 100,000 Americans died from overdoses. An impressive figure to say the least which far exceeds the sum of people who have lost their lives in a road accident and from a firearm.
The subjects involved, from what emerged from the careful investigation conducted by the Carabinieri, stole prescription pads and medical stamps from various hospitals (Bergamo, Lodi, Milan, Voghera, as well as from San Matteo in Pavia), and then falsified the medical prescriptions ( so-called red recipes), by going to over 55 pharmacies in Lombardy and requesting the drug OxyContin, which contains the active ingredient oxycodone. The Carabinieri analyzed approximately 10 thousand prescriptions
medical devices, ascertaining that over 500 of them had been falsified by criminals.
The pharmacists, when they wanted to ascertain the quantity or type of drug required, little used in Italy except for severe pain therapies, telephoned the doctor’s number indicated on the prescription, promptly receiving confirmation from an accomplice, who was not in reality the
doctor.
Once they had accumulated a considerable quantity of this medicine, approximately one thousand tablets, the criminals sent a package, normally using the services offered by couriers, to the United States, mainly in the Boston area. 21 shipments were monitored during the investigation. The pills, intercepted by accomplices at the destination, were then sold at retail on the American market. If we consider that in Italy it was obtained free of charge in pharmacies, thanks to the false prescriptions presented, and was then resold at retail as a narcotic, we understand how high the profit was. In fact, each tablet is 80/100 mg. it was sold for 80/100 $, for thousands of dollars in fees. The shipment of over 20,000 80/100 mg tablets was confirmed. each in the USA, for proceeds from the drug dealing activity that exceed $1,600,000 and proven fiscal damage for the Italian State of over €65,000.
I Carabinieri of the NAS of Cremona and the Investigative Unit of Pavia, thanks to technical activities and observation and control services, they became aware of the modus operandi of the association. Then thanks to the meeting with the Americans from HSI (Homeland Security Investigations), which took place first in Milan and then in Pavia with the support of the DCSA (Central Anti-Drug Services Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior), in the presence of the operating Carabinieri and the Judicially, it was possible to have confirmation and confirmation of the criminal activity which, moreover, also allowed US colleagues to act against subjects on their territory. The activity, which is unprecedented in Italy, therefore made it possible to interrupt the criminal activity. Investigators believe it is highly likely that the present investigation represents only the beginning and that further developments with criminal groups in other areas of Italy may soon reveal themselves.
The operation concluded with the issuing of a precautionary custody order in prison for 8 subjects, including 3 Italians, 2 South Americans and one North African, residing in the Province of Pavia, except one in the Province of Turin and one other in the Province of Rimini. However, only one of the eight measurements could not be performed due to the unavailability of one of the subjects involved. In any case, searches to locate him are ongoing.
Around 40 Carabinieri from the Provincial Command of Pavia and the Anti-adulteration and Healthcare Unit of Cremonawith the help of the Carabinieri of Moncalieri and Rimini.