Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Food and Drug Supervisory Board (BPOM) has named a suspect in the case of illegal medicines found in the Balaraja warehousing complex in Banten province, the Chief of the National Police Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) Commissioner General Ari Dono Sukmanto said.

"His initial is R," Ari said here on Tuesday.

BPOM has named R as a suspect in the case, while the police itself coordinated with supervised civil servant investigators to look into the case, he added.

While investigating the case, the police cooperated with BPOM by lending its laboratory to check the medicines and during the investigation they found expired medicines, he said.

After being interrogated, the suspect was found producing the medicines himself, Ari said.

Ari pointed out that R has been charged with violating Law No. 36 of 2009 concerning health.

Earlier, a joint team of Bareskrim and BPOM personnel had searched five warehouses located in Balaraja, Banten, some 28 kilometers west of Jakarta on Friday, September 2.

During the search, the joint team confiscated 42.48 million pills made from different raw materials. The pills were supposed to be circulated illegally.

The team also found several devices used to produce the illegal drugs, including mixers, tablet molders, coating machines, stripping machines and filling machines

Raw materials used to produce medicines, packing materials, and traditional medicines were also recovered.

Among the medicines found at the warehouse were Trihexyphenydyl, Heximer, Tramadol, Dextrometorphan, Carnophen and Somadryl.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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