50,000 fake prescriptions issued over a period of two years

A GANG which was responsible for the forging of 50,000 medical prescriptions has been broken up with 18 members arrested.

Both the Guardia Civil and National Police were separately investigating claims of fake prescriptions emanating initially from Cadiz in 2015 and they decided to work together to track down those responsible.

After painstaking research, they discovered that the prescriptions were being produced in order to obtain benzodiazepines, a family of tranquilisers which found ready buyers on the black market in Ceuta and Morocco generally.

The trail of fake prescriptions led officers initially to pharmacies in Algeciras, Campo de Gibraltar and La Linea and then spread to most of Spain including Almeria and Murcia.

The drugs whilst used safely under medical direction are known as ‘karkubi’ in Morocco and when taken recreationally give hallucinations but can also cause psychopathic behaviours.