ROME – The Carabinieri have uncovered a haul of illegal drugs used for the treatment of the symptoms of Covid-19 in Chinese supermarkets and herbalists in Rome and Prato.
Officials from the Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela della Salute have revealed that 437 boxes, containing in total over 2,000 pills of Chinese origin, were found by the Carabinieri NAS in Rome, in collaboration with the Nucleo Carabinieri AIFA, the Carabinieri NAS of Florence and the local police in Prato. The discovery was part of a national monitoring operation of the presence of illegal covid-19 drugs throughout the country, overseen by the Ministry of Health.
The five supermarkets and herbalists in which these pharmacies were found, four in Rome and one in Prato, all run by Chinese citizens, had no authorisation to sell any kind of commercial drugs or produce prescriptions, and the drugs found had not been clinically proven to cure any of the symptoms of Covid. Those responsible for the sale of these illicit substances have been brought to the Public Prosecutor’s office for running unlicensed pharmacies, as well as for the wholesale purchase and sale of unauthorised medicine.
The pills was seized with authorisation by the National (AIFA) and European (EMA) health authorities due to doubts about their efficacy and possible harmful side effects.

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