Carabinieri have concluded a large international operation aimed at protecting health and combating pharmaceutical crime. The operation "Shield IV" (an acronym for Safe Health Implementation, Enforcement and Legal Development) - which took place between April and November 2023 under the direction of Europol and with the participation, as the only Italian police force, of the Carabinieri Health Protection Command - allowed to dismantle 52 criminal groups, seize thousands of medicines, raw materials and doping products of various kinds, totaling more than 13 million units, in various pharmaceutical forms with a commercial value of 64 million euros. Also seized 4 clandestine laboratories. A total of 92 websites were blacked out to Internet traffic in Italy. Administrative activity consisted of the execution of 3,935 inspections. Anti-doping activity, on the other hand, took the form of approximately 8,000 inspections of athletes. At the end of the operations, 296 people were arrested and 988 people were referred to the national judicial authorities for various reasons, for a total of 1,284. The NAS department played an organizational, planning and directing role in the operation, along with the Greek Police, the French Oclaesp and the Spanish Guardia Civil. Twenty-eight countries (19 EU member states and nine non-member countries) joined the operation, along with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which offered financial support, Frontex, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the World Customs Organization.
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