A “male driver” has been “arrested on suspicion of supplying controlled drugs” from a vehicle on Orchard Street at Scholes, Wigan, local police have revealed.
“The driver…appeared to be running his own mobile pharmacy”, a Facebook post made by Wigan and Leigh police on Sunday (August 18) said.
Read more: Four ‘pending’ prosecutions in NI over illicit weight loss drugs
After “some great partnership working between Wigan Central Watch and the town centre neighbourhood team resulted in the stop of a vehicle”, the man was “captured dispensing suspected stolen or fake prescription only medicines (POMs)”, it said.
“Needless to say, the male driver was arrested on suspicion of supplying controlled drugs,” it added.
“More drugs and quantities of cash”
A second arrest was made later that afternoon following the execution of a house search at an address in Atherton.
A woman was arrested “on suspicion of supplying controlled drugs following the discovery of more drugs and quantities of cash,” said the police.
It added that the medicines found in the search “will be forensically tested to determine if they do actually contain the right ingredients”.
Read more: Suspended sentence for pharmacist who illegally supplied 300k co-codamol pills
“Much of this type of trade involves fake product that can and has resulted in sudden death of users,” it stressed.
A Wigan and Leigh police spokesperson told C+D today that a 35-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman have been released under investigation.
They said that numerous drugs were found in the bust, including Pregabalin, Zopiclone, Tramadol, Codeine, Diazepam and Citalopram.
While officers did not wish to disclose how much cash was recovered at this stage, the haul is likely to run into the thousands of pounds and will be assessed by a drugs valuation expert, they added.
Read more: Diazepam dealers: Pharmacists sentenced for ‘industrial’ illegal supply
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland health minister Mike Nesbitt last month revealed that the country has successfully prosecuted one person, with four more “pending”, on charges related to illicit weight loss drug supply.
The previous month, Northern Ireland pharmacist Gerard Cullinan was sentenced to 11 months’ imprisonment suspended for three years for unlawfully supplying “over 300,000 co-codamol tablets”.
And in May, two pharmacists were sentenced for the “industrial scale” illegal supply of class C controlled drugs (CDs).
