Prishtinë, March 22, 2023

Kosovo Police, the Directorate for Investigation of Economic Crimes and Corruption, respectively the Section for Investigation of Economic Crimes today on 22.03.2023 has conducted a police operation in Peja region where there have been searched ten (10) business entities – pharmacies for which there was the grounded suspicion of selling smuggled pharmaceutical products without labels and dangerous for the life of citizens.

This operation was coordinated with the Kosovo Customs (Anti-Smuggling Unit) and Pharmaceutical Inspectors from the Ministry of Health.

Ten (10) pharmacies have been searched, where in six (6) of them has been found a considerable amount of pharmaceutical products without labels.

-Business 1, into three (3) units have been found: 398 types of drugs without labels, 40 pieces of drugs with forged labels and one narcotic product without the license. The pharmaceutical Inspectorate also found that the pharmacist working there is not licensed and therefore issued the decision for closing this business;

-Business 2, into two (2) units have been found: 203 types of medical (products) without labels;

-Business 3, in one (1) unit, have been found: 80 types of medical (products) without labels;

The three (3) owners of businesses (pharmacies) were taken to the Police Station who have been interviewed as suspects related the criminal offences mentioned above.

Some of the pharmacies are of the same owners of other pharmacies in Peja city

An amount of drugs without labels which is suspected to have been smuggled has been confiscated and the Anti-smuggling Unit from Kosovo Customs is dealing with further procedures while the Sector for Investigation of Economic Crimes from Kosovo Police has proceeded the criminal case to the competent Prosecution.

After the interviews, the suspects by the order of the prosecutor on duty from the Basic Prosecution in Peja have been released in regular procedure while the cases have been initiated for “Production and distribution of harmful medical products” and “Smuggling of goods”.