Brazil police arrest "Viagra gang" suspect
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-30 17:10
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil -- Police have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing
anti-impotence drugs from dozens of pharmacies in the past year and were seeking
his accomplice in what they are calling the "Viagra gang."
"One was arrested and we know the other one's identity and are looking for
him," a Rio de Janeiro police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The men are suspected of holding up more than 35 pharmacies in the same
drugstore chain. Police said they stole anti-impotence drugs such as Viagra as
well as money from registers. The chain estimated its losses at some US$220,000
(118,500 pounds).
Police said the partners sold the drugs on the black market and were so
successful that they drew criticism from an unlikely source -- the criminal
underworld.
Taped phone conversations show members of a powerful drug gang from the same
slum where the two lived complaining that their illicit business was drawing too
much police attention to the shantytown near Rio's famed Copacabana Beach.
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