Expatriate Imports Prescription Medicines Issued By Italian Doctor In Suspicious Manner

A thirty-year-old expatriate based in Italy has been questioned on charges of possession of psychotropic substances in violation of provisions on the import of psychotropic substances and the sale of pharmaceuticals without a proper license, against the backdrop of the arrest by customs authorities at Algiers international airport Houari Boumedienne of a medical drugs smuggler who was caught with a large quantity of illegal drugs in his luggage.

Twelve bottles of liquid rifutril, 100 tablets of the same class, a box of valium and 50 boxes of women’s medicines making up a total of 1,000 tablets were discovered.

The latter medicines can’t be imported or transferred across the country’s borders except by a license issued by the Ministry of Health.

The prohibited medicines were found by customs agents among the smugglers’ personal belongings during the inspection process and while passing through the “Scanner” detection device at the Airport. 

The accused was swiftly put under security investigation and then referred to the judiciary pending trial by virtue of the law.

The defendant acknowledged on Tuesday during his response to the judge’s questions that he’d purchased prescription drugs, issued by an Italian doctor during his three-day trip to Rome ostensibly to get rid of his protracted heroin addiction due to a psychological trauma, arguing that he had brought the medicines for trading, and was not intending to sale them on the black market in Algeria at the request of some shadowy people, according to police records. 

During the court’s first hearing, the General Prosecutor required a sentence of five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 dinars against the accused.