Mungo Soggot
Police have raided Cape empowerment group Brimstone’s pharmaceutical arm for the second time this year, seizing a batch of stolen antibiotics.
The swoop on Monday follows a high profile raid on the company in May, in which the narcotics squad confiscated stolen painkillers as well as assorted drugs allegedly destined for the state sector.
The company’s lawyer, Anneke Viljoen of Hofmeyr, Herbstein, Ginwala & Cluver, said that Brimstone had again not known the goods were stolen. She said this week’s raid had been less dramatic than the one in May – “it was a normal, routine search and seizure”.
Viljoen said it appeared Brimstone had become the “whipping horse in the industry now. Everyone blames Brimstone or they sell it [stolen drugs ] to Brimstone, and in between legitimate medicine they put in the stolen stuff. The police start their investigations by collecting it from Brimstone and then following the invoices back until [they find] whoever stole it.”
Brimstone has impeccable political credentials; it is chaired by Minister of Transport Dullah Omar’s brother, Adam, and last week recruited Professor Jakes Gerwel, former director general in the office of Nelson Mandela, as its non-executive chair.
Viljoen said of the drugs seized this week: “There is no way that anybody could have known that that stuff was stolen. It wasn’t reported to the police, no notification went out.”
One of the most striking aspects of the raid on Brimstone in May was that the company’s chief pharmacist had been specifically warned about the stolen batch of “Stopayne” painkillers weeks before the police struck.
A private investigator specialising in the field, Dave van Heeden, said new entrants to the market, such as Brimstone, exposed themselves to the risk of acquiring stolen goods because they bought from middleman wholesalers at lower prices.
Van Heerden, who provides security services for Adcock Ingram, said most established South African drug suppliers only bought from the original source. Van Heerden said about R1-billion of drugs are stolen each year in South Africa and laundered by a network of companies.
After the May raid, Brimstone succeeded in shooting down the police search warrant in the Cape High Court because of procedural errors on the part of the officers involved.
Viljoen said this week’s search and seizure had been properly executed. She said the company had supplied the police with documentation proving the drugs had been sourced from a wholesaler called Surgichem.
A police representative said the 25 cases of stolen drugs seized on Monday were worth about R220 000. He confirmed some of them had been sourced from Surgichem, but added that other suppliers could also be involved.
Viljoen said the police and representatives from Brimstone’s pharmaceutical arm, which has recently changed its name to Zenith, had parted on amicable terms this week. She said the police had agreed that they would seek to co-operate with Brimstone in future and that “if they need something, they would phone Brimstone and Brimstone would give it to them”.
Police officers involved in the raid confirmed that Brimstone had been notably co-operative, and had even invited the police to screen its entire drugs stock.
Adcock Ingram had not replied to questions about the antibiotic theft at the time of going to press.