ITALIAN POLICE SEIZE ILLICIT DRUGS MONEY

26 June 1994

italian police have discovered a trade in pharmaceuticals, through which returns from the sales of stolen drugs have been used by moneylenders for loans at usury rates.

The trade has been discovered in Naples, which this week hosts a G7 meeting under the leadership of Italy's new premier, the media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. Naples is also home to Francesco de Lorenzo, Italy's former Health Minister and lately guest of the city gaol, under investigation on several counts in italy's massive bribery scandals.

The police have seized around 1.7 billion lire ($1 million) plus 700 million lire worth of post-dated cheques and drafts believed to be of illicit origin. The money is believed to have been recycled from a clandestine market of stolen pharmaceuticals. A further problem is that these stolen products constitute a public health hazard, as they have been stored under totally unsatisfactory conditions before being resold to pharmacists at lower than market prices. Ticlid (ticlopidine), Voltaren (diclofenac), Zestril (lisinopril) and Nitroderm (nitroglycerin) are reported to be among the 200,000 or so drugs seized by the police.

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