Crime
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
The boxes and package inserts were written in Korean, so it was all a matter of faith. Spanish investigators detected that someone was smuggling vials of botulinum toxin - better known by its trade name of Botox - manufactured in the Asian country. They were not 'fake' products, but they were illegal: their use is not authorised in Spain as they have not passed European Union controls.
Unravelling the thread, the officers soon realised they had a 'matryoshka' in front of them, as one branch led to the next and the next to another. They christened it Operation Kalopsia, a Greek word meaning to see beauty where there is none, or to believe that something is more beautiful than it really is.
The Guardia Civil's central operational unit (UCO) and Spain's national tax agency (AEAT) delved deeper into the illegal Botox client network and identified the owners and employees of the aesthetic centres that allegedly used these products. There are 41 people under investigation, including two doctors, and the owner of the aesthetic clinic in Marbella for which they worked, who was arrested and her premises closed down.
Investigators were able distinguish between two types of centres: those that are authorised to carry out «skin inward treatments», which are aesthetic clinics with qualified doctors in charge; and those that can only carry out «skin outward activities», such as beautician centres, hairdressers or clandestine premises, where you could have your toenails done or, on on advertising screen, have Botox injected into your lips.
In the Marbella clinic, and in many others investigated, treatments were carried out with Botox legally acquired in pharmacies under the prescription of the two doctors who were contracted, but Korean Botox was also used to lower the average price of the product and increase the profitability of the business, according to sources in the investigation.
During the inspection of this aesthetic medicine clinic, located in the centre of Marbella, investigators found some 1,500 informed consents that had been signed by as many clients, which gives an idea of the volume of business. Depending on the clinic, treatment with the official product could cost between 300 and 400 euros, while in the clandestine centres it could be half the price or less.
Officers also inspected another aesthetic medicine clinic in the province of Malaga - although no arrests were made and the establishment was not closed down - and four clandestine beautician or hairdresser centres where treatments with Korean Botox were carried out. One of these premises was also sealed and closed down by Guardia Civil and AEAT officials.
Operation Kalopsia was extended to the provinces of Alicante, Madrid, Cadiz, Murcia, Cordoba and Seville, where 18 other establishments were inspected. Sources close to the case indicated that in these provinces two other doctors and at least seven nurses are being investigated for injecting Botox into their clients.
In these actions, 700 vials of Botox (used to reduce wrinkles in the skin), 275 vials of hyaluronidase (used to counteract the negative effects of some treatments), more than 200 containers of lidocaine (a local anaesthetic), as well as more than a thousand pre-filled syringes of hyaluronic acid (also used to eliminate wrinkles), tensor threads and specific machinery such as centrifuges for carrying out plasma rich in platelets (also used to eliminate wrinkles), as well as more than a thousand pre-filled syringes of hyaluronic acid (also to eliminate wrinkles), tensor threads and specific machinery such as centrifuges for carrying out platelet-rich plasma treatments (used to delay skin ageing).
Depending on their degree of participation in the scheme, the investigated individuals have been charged with alleged offences against public health, fraud, professional intrusion and membership of a criminal organisation. The agents believe that the fraud was proven by administering an illegal product in Spain with characteristics and a leaflet incomprehensible to the vast majority of the clientele, who were apparently unaware of this circumstance, in order to increase the profitability of the treatment.
Investigators have also arrested a man in Marbella whose role was allegedly focused on the importation and distribution of the vials, which entered through the shipping port and airport of Seville, leading to another irregularity: the Korean Botox was travelling in boxes or containers without the appropriate thermal conditions required for these products.
According to the investigations, the organisation's business was to offer these vials to its 'associated' clinics at competitive prices, especially through social media networks, where the tracking of these clandestine services is much more difficult for the authorities. A money laundering network has also been uncovered through current accounts that channelled the cash from the treatments through Latvia or Bulgaria.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados
¿Ya eres registrado?
Inicia sesiónNecesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.