Barcelona (EFE) to prostitutes from all over Spain and also in Poland and Italy.
As reported by the Police this Wednesday, within the framework of this operation, called “Hoods” and carried out in the province of Barcelona, ten people of Chinese origin have been arrested and 20,000 condoms of different brands have been seized, as well as thousands of units of erectile dysfunction drugs of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and American origin; and sexual stimulators, and all this without any type of medical supervision.
The distribution of this type of counterfeit products poses a danger to public health precisely because of the absence of medical control both in the manufacture and in the subsequent prescription of the medicines, as the Police have warned.
professionalized group
The now dismantled group, which operated in a very hermetic, professionalized and specialized manner, contacted prostitutes throughout Spain, after obtaining their contacts through the portals in which they advertised their services, and offered them condoms and medicines.
The investigation began after a customer, who bought condoms from a well-known brand online, complained about their poor quality and reported it to the parcel company that had delivered the condom.
The security delegate of the parcel company informed the National Police, before which specialized agents from the Central Cybercrime Unit began to investigate.
The agents were able to prove the existence of a multitude of buyers throughout Spain, especially women engaged in prostitution, to whom the network offered these products without approval through instant messaging applications.
Within the framework of the investigation, the victims provided samples of the condoms, which were sent to the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPSC) and to the company that distributed condoms with the official brand.
The AEMPSC determined that the products did not meet the requirements for their sale in Spain and that, therefore, it could not be ensured that they offered an adequate level of protection, while the distributor warned that it was a clear forgery, since that the expiration date did not match the lot number and that the condoms had poor edges.
Records in Badalona and L’Hospitalet
Faced with this situation, the Police searched two buildings in Badalona (Barcelona) and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) at the end of April, where they located thousands of condoms and drugs against erectile dysfunction.
In addition, the police verified that the members of the network had numerous technological security measures to avoid being detected, such as applications to make their Internet connections anonymous and browsers that allowed them to go unnoticed on the dark web and leave no trace on their browsing history.
They also located a web page managed by the main researcher in which an erectile dysfunction medication was offered in the same format as those that were intervened in the records.
The police also found evidence that those arrested also marketed the products in Poland and Italy and that they had a business network for importing, distributing and selling condoms and medicines to the public.