Cops nab suspect engaged in selling expired drugs

MANILA, Philippines - Police seized more than P1-million worth of expired drugs and medicine which are reportedly being tampered and sold to the public in a buy-bust operation in Sta. Cruz, Manila yesterday. The operation also resulted in the arrest of Romulo Quiñonez, 56, of 1725 Tayuman st., Sta. Cruz, and the confiscation of several boxes of drugs and assorted paraphernalia used in erasing and changing the expiry dates of the medicines.

Manila Police District director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales said Quiñonez is the subject of police surveillance following intelligence reports that a syndicate has been distributing expired medicines in small drug store outlets in Metro Manila and in the provinces.

Quiñonez, who is reportedly engaged in the illicit activities of tampering drugs since 2002, got his supply of expired drugs from a certain “Ruben Mallari,” Rosales said. Through ingenous methods, Quiñonez would remove the label from expired antibiotic vials by soaking it in water and replace it with a new label. He also erased expiry dates of capsule drugs with acetone and stamped new expiry dates.

Mallari would then collect the tampered drugs, paying him a commission of from five to 10 percent of the sold drugs. Quiñonez said he sometimes disguised himself as a medical representative and sold the tampered drugs to small drug stores in Pampanga, Dagupan, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and the Visayas.      

Police operatives led by District Police Intelligence and Operations Unit head Chief Inspector Audie Madrideo caught Quiñonez while in the act of tampering the expiry dates of the drugs inside his house. “Some medicines are already packed and ready for distribution when we arrived,” Madrideo said. Most of the medicines are prescription drugs for heart ailment and antibiotics.  – Nestor Etolle