Vet medicine scam exposed
Officers seized 2,850 prescriptions and 200 doses of veterinary medicines
A SCAM dealing in veterinary medications has been uncovered by Guardia Civil in Alicante and Valencia provinces.
Officers have investigated 13 people on suspicion of, depending on their level of involvement, falsifying documentation, belonging to a criminal organisation and a public health offence.
The investigation was launched in April 2022 when the professional college of veterinarians in Alicante province learned that a shop specialising in food for animals was also dispensing veterinary medicines without authorisation or control.
The force’s nature protection service (Seprona) analysed all the documentation and discovered that a business authorised to sell veterinary medicines in the Huerta Sur area of Valencia province was using a method known as the ‘reverse prescription’.
This consists of buying and selling medicines which are subject to prescription using a prescription that was not issued as a result of a clinical procedure but at the clients’ request, in order to increase sales and therefore profits.
The company had a vet who was issuing prescriptions without examining animals and therefore without knowing what physical condition they were in.
This practice not only posed a danger to animals, but potentially to people, as some of the animals concerned were for human consumption.
The alleged ringleader was the manager and salesperson of the business, who is accused of colluding with the vet using false or non-existent codes for farms from the general registry of livestock activities (REGA), and a licensed pharmacist who did not carry out the legally required checks.
Searches were carried out of the business under investigation and 20 other livestock and animal businesses connected to it in Alicante
and Valencia provinces.
Between February 1 and 16, officers investigated 11 men and two women, aged between 43 and 72, including the manager of the business, the vet and the pharmacist, as well as 10 managers of other small businesses.
The officers seized 2,850 prescriptions, 200 doses of veterinary medicines and a large quantity of documents, which are still being analysed.
The case files and evidence have been handed over to a court in Denia.