Health authorities and experts are on alert due to the seizure of several boxes of expired and altered medications that are being distributed throughout Colombia through a criminal network composed of doctors and pharmacists.
The first case identified was in Cúcuta, when a pharmacy assistant supplied Saizen – a growth hormone – to a minor, a medication that was altered, had no effect, and for which they had to pay several millions because their EPS (health provider) did not supply it.
This case was the cornerstone for establishing the modus operandi of the criminal structure that, in addition to Saizen, has been illegally commercializing medications such as Keytruda – primarily used for lung cancer treatments – and the famous Ozempic, commercialized to treat type 2 diabetes, but which is used in weight loss procedures.
‘False Hope’
The criminal network is led by a renowned pharmacist from Venezuela, who was captured by CTI members along with 12 other people in different operations in Norte de Santander, Cesar, and Bogotá.
In the file, dubbed ‘False Hope’, it is indicated that adulterated and expired medications are commercialized online and at physical points. And that the business is so lucrative that they had a printing press to make the boxes and a courier company to distribute them.
Furthermore, they seek clients among EPS affiliates who are not supplying drugs and patients in Venezuela and Ecuador.
Through intelligence work and the support of a couple of pharmaceutical laboratories that have been affected by this network, several drugstores distributing the medications were located.
EL TIEMPO had already revealed that one of the orchestrators of the organization is Domingo Antonio Gutiérrez Camacaro, a renowned pharmacist who worked in important clinical laboratories such as AstraZeneca and Vaccines Business United.
For the authorities, he is the economic arm of the network and responsible for coordinating logistical strategies for the illegal sale of medications and vaccines to patients with complex diseases.
His voice and that of other links in this network were recorded in dozens of interceptions that are now part of the file:
“Good afternoon, I have product, I have Adcetris, I have Keytruda of two ampoules. See what other good product we can get; we are innovating everything, you know that what I sell is good,” is heard in the calls.
And there are videos of undercover police agents in the drugstores that sold the medications. The evidence was sufficient to issue an arrest warrant against Gutiérrez Camaro, which became effective on May 18 at El Dorado airport, when he was about to take a flight to Brazil for a medical convention.
The other links
For the authorities, it is clear that the organization tried to camouflage its illegal sales through the so-called Grupo Caroní SAS.
According to documents in possession of this newspaper, the firm was registered on April 16, 2019 with a capital of 100 million pesos.
EL TIEMPO investigated and established that the company’s manager, Ever José Hoyos, has an arrest warrant and is being located, as well as María del Carmen González de Hoyos, the company’s administrator, who contributed academic and management knowledge for the sale of the drugs.
Grupo Caroní SAS owns MedicalNort and the Medimecs drugstore, located in Cúcuta; it was in the latter that the dose was supplied to the minor in December 2022.
The documents also mention Alejandro Chacín Perla (sub-manager) and Angie Alzate Vanegas, who have also not been captured. In the network of drugstores, in addition to Keytruda, which can cost about 20 million pesos and which the network sold for 2.5 million pesos, they also distributed Janumet, prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes, and Yervoy, used for cancer treatments, whose price is between 10 and 15 million pesos.
In addition, they sold vaccines such as Gardasil 9, used to prevent Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and growth hormones such as Saizen, as well as Avastin, Herceptin, and Adcetris, for oncological treatments.
The seized drugs were analyzed by chemical tests by specialized laboratories and showed that, in effect, they were altered and innocuous.
EL TIEMPO contacted Yessid Echeverría, pharmaceutical director of the League Against Cancer, who assured that these medications are covered by EPS, but that, due to the underfunding of the system or delays in deliveries, patients prefer to buy them on their own.
“These networks usually bring smuggled medications, modify them, and sell them to patients. They have perfected their counterfeiting technique,” he assured.
Printing press and courier service
Through the interceptions, Johan Alexis Pérez, already captured, was identified as the commercial leader. In one of the calls, the subject offers, negotiates, and sells the adulterated medications and even asks for advance payments.
“You have to do your part and I have to do mine because it’s part of the game. If you want all 12, you must give me some money; the idea is to build trust, but I already have that business for you to do there. 10 molecules at 60 percent, it has good results,” is heard in the audio.
EL TIEMPO established that the network had a courier company that distributed the medications nationwide, named Mecs Solutions Express. They also had printing presses that designed and printed boxes.
In addition to the pharmacist and Pérez, the other captured individuals are Leonardo André Pineda (salesperson), Miller Sáenz and Diana Carolina Ordoñez (hormone manufacturers), Jairo Andrés Sarabia (drugstore owner), and Miguel Ángel López.
The list is completed by Jeimmy Sandoval Hoyos and Patricia Parra Díaz (administrators), Gerson Leal (transporter), Robinson David Corredor, and Andrea Mariana Varenzuela.
The latter, a doctor and wife of the Venezuelan pharmacist, was captured in a raid on her apartment in the El Country neighborhood, north of Bogotá, where boxes of Keytruda were found. But this Friday she was released after her lawyer, the criminal lawyer Hernando Nates, demonstrated that she had no links to the medications found.
(Consult all articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
None of the captured individuals have accepted charges, but EL TIEMPO learned that some are already seeking plea bargains with the Prosecutor’s Office.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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