The police opened a giant network of drug dealers

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In Russia, it seems, there is a huge network of dealers of drugs supplied to medical institutions and already paid for from the budget.

What will always bring big bucks? The health of citizens, who tend to get sick and even sometimes die from this, and the budget, of course, is the state one, which many consider to be nobody's and immeasurable. But when these two concepts merge together, then not just big money appears, but gigantic money. True, they are dirty and threatening with long prison terms, but the ambiguous sums cover the fear of bunks. Especially when there is a well-developed, well-oiled scheme. Here is one of such global schemes, which, in my opinion, operates almost throughout the entire territory of the country, and we will consider. One possible example.

As you know, the state allocates huge amounts of money in the budget for the purchase of especially important medicines, which citizens suffering from serious illnesses receive free of charge. Tens and tens of billions of rubles are spent on this from the budget. As a result of tenders, these drugs are supplied to hospitals and medical centers by strictly defined companies, which either produce drugs themselves, or purchase them from manufacturers or other suppliers.

Now imagine that some bad doctors, storekeepers, medical officials do not give patients some of the free, but very expensive drugs (sometimes the price for one package reaches hundreds and hundreds of thousands of rubles), convincing them to take something else, or just silently do not offer. And these most expensive drugs are banally stolen and sold to intermediaries, who in various clever ways (through a chain of intermediaries and one-day companies) resell them to their own official suppliers. And the official suppliers sell drugs to the state again, receiving budget money. By the way, many suppliers often do not even know that they are selling drugs that have already been sold to the state once or twice. That is, we get a multiple cycle of the same expensive, but necessary drugs in exchange for more and more budget billions.

Over the past year, I have been observing one seemingly small, regional history, which, in my opinion, may well be a demonstration of the trouble-free operation of the above scheme. So to speak, a small slice of the big All-Russian game with a budget.

So, a certain OJSC "Pharmacy" quietly worked in the Penza region, quite adequately performing the following functions on the basis of the concluded state contract with the regional Ministry of Health: help". And everything seems to be fine, but on May 28 last year, a supplier from Cheboksary LLC Pharmaceutical Innovations, also in accordance with a state contract with the Ministry of Health of the Penza Region, supplied the drug Mimpara in the form of tablets in a rather small amount - 80 packs for a modest amount of more than 992 thousand rubles. And here the fun begins.

Pharmacia OJSC, whose duties include, according to the state contract, the reception and storage of drugs, took these drugs to the warehouse in the amount of 80 packages. And then the general director of "Pharmacy" Anton Koloskov suddenly discovers that all the packages of "Mimpara" turned out to be with completely different series, that is, it turns out that someone scraped them from different supplies. And such a re-grading of serial numbers is completely atypical for the supply of medicines and immediately raised great doubts about their legal origin.

As it turned out, the drug "Mimpara" is produced only by the Dutch company "Amgen Europe BV", whose official distributor is LLC "Amgen". Surprised by the inconsistency in the serial numbers, the head of "Pharmacy" Anton Koloskov sends an official request to LLC "Amgen" with a request to clarify who in Russia the drug was supplied under these series, and receives an equally surprising answer. LLC "Amdzhen" informs that the drug "Mimpara" of these series was supplied in Russia only to official distributors under direct contracts - CJSC "Firma Euroservice", LLC "Company Pharmstor" and LLC "Irvin 2". And nobody else! This medication was not supplied to any LLC Pharmaceutical Innovations, which means that it was obtained bypassing official distributors and no one guarantees the quality.

Tireless Koloskov sends inquiries to the above companies working with the official supplier of Mimpara tablets under direct contracts. But all three companies - Firm Euroservice, Company Pharmstor, and Irvin 2 - answered absolutely unequivocally: the drug Minpara was not shipped to Pharmaceutical Innovations LLC, and the suppliers do not have any contractual relationship. All correspondence is at my disposal.

It turns out that from Cheboksary, medicines of unknown, mysterious origin were delivered to the Penza region, and from completely different series. And the budget money was paid for them.

A request was also sent to Pharmaceutical Innovations LLC itself, which is based in Cheboksary, with a request to explain how the drug Mimpara got to them. Cheboksary residents were also asked to send certified copies of the invoices. And it was here that the only and harsh response from LLC Pharmaceutical Innovations appeared. I will quote verbatim: "This condition (explanation of the origin of the mysterious product. - OL) is not provided for in the contract that was concluded between us." Clearly and clearly - you go through the forest, and we will not tell anyone the secret of our strange business. Where they took it, they took it there.

Then the Ministry of Health of the Penza region, as the owner of the goods, was forced to turn to law enforcement agencies - after all, drugs, and the money was budgetary. So, on April 1, 2019, the Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Chuvash Republic (it is in this republic that the mysterious LLC Pharmaceutical Innovations is based) received a statement “about the fact of a possible illegal circulation of the drug Mimpara by LLC Pharmaceutical Innovations.

And only one month was needed by the senior investigator for the Leninsky district of the Cheboksary of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Chuvash region, senior lieutenant I. V. Ufukov in order to fully "understand" everything. After checking, Starley Ufukov unambiguously established that (I quote): "The drug" Mimpara "(of all different series !!! - OL) meets the requirements of regulatory documents … The quality and safety of the drug are confirmed by the copies of certificates for the goods provided …" And accordingly, according to the Chuvash Investigative Committee, there is no reason to initiate a criminal case. This is how it is written, and there is even a form and a signature.

But the most surprising thing is that the investigators from Cheboksary were not at all interested in the fact that the medicines for which it was paid from the state budget have different serial numbers that are not typical of supplies. They were not surprised by the fact that the official distributor of the drug in Russia announced that “the drug“Mimpara”was not supplied to LLC“Pharmaceutical Innovations”. And the question of how he suddenly ended up in this office in the form of different series, which sold it to the state, also for some reason did not arise. It turns out strange, right? For some reason, everyone was only interested in the quality of the drug, and not in its paths, roads along which it sailed to the supplier.

Oh yes. And one more fascinating moment: against the general director of "Pharmacy" Anton Koloskov, the same department of the Investigative Directorate of the ICR in Chuvashia tried to initiate a criminal case under the article of the Criminal Code on false denunciation. That is, citizen Koloskov allegedly deliberately reported a crime that did not exist. But, apparently, realizing in time that this kind of pressure on the principal director, who strictly observes the terms of the state contract, would not work, they decided not to bring charges against Koloskov.

One gets the impression that someone is clearly interested in the mysterious state budgetary supplies of medications with confused batches and incomprehensible suppliers to continue their movement from suppliers to sick citizens eligible for state social assistance. And here I have a question: is this story with the drug "Mimpara" part of a big adventure, when stolen drugs (from hospitals, from warehouses and other authorities) do not go to patients, but to dealers who, with the help of complex chains of fly-by-night companies are being sold to the state again? And haven't these same Mimpara tablets been sold to the budget twice or even three times?

It may well be that the supplier Pharmaceutical Innovations LLC was also not aware of the fact that it had unwittingly become one of the links in a fraudulent chain operating in several regions. They offered the drug, which is included in the state contract, at a good price, there were quality guarantees, why not buy it for further sale to the state?

This is not the first year that I have been researching the Russian pharmaceutical market, which specializes in the supply of medicines under government contracts, that is, at the expense of the state budget. And I have a strong opinion that there is a huge ramified network of resellers of drugs supplied to medical institutions and already paid for from the budget in the country. Moreover, these medications do not get to patients many times - I suppose that some of the same expensive medications were stolen more than once or twice and were sold to the state again and again. A kind of drug cycle that brings billions. Moreover, billions stolen from our taxes.

By the way, this story came to light thanks to the Pharmacy company, which is obliged under a state contract and must provide the state with “services for the acceptance, storage, delivery and dispensing of medicines on preferential prescriptions,” and, accordingly, keep track of any “strange” deliveries. That "Pharmacy" is impeccable and fulfills. And I must say that the Penza region is one of the leaders in the country in providing medicines to certain categories of citizens who are entitled to state social assistance. And I want to believe that in such a successful region, the story I have cited will not turn into the norm.