MALASIQUI – Two persons were arrested by the police Tuesday while transporting a big box containing assorted counterfeit medicines on their way to distribute these to dealers in Pangasinan.

Supt. Leopoldo Rivera, chief of police of Malasiqui, said those arrested wee suspected couriers of counterfeit medicines. They were aboard a tricycle along the Villasis-Malasiqui road enroute to Malasiqui town proper when intercepted by the police.

They were identified as Jessie Quiroz, the tricycle driver, of barangay del Pilar, Paniqui, Tarlac; and Eduardo Apelado of San Fabian town, believed to be members of a big syndicate engaged in the manufacture, transport and distribution of counterfeit or fake medicines.

Rivera said his men intercepted the tricycle suspecting something unusual because the duo rode only on a tricycle while carrying medicine shipment estimated to cost several thousand pesos.

Some of the medicines bore Arabic names, bolstering suspicions these could have been sourced out from abroad without import receipts and without passing the standards, according to officials of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) who helped inventory the items.

The inventory was conducted with the help of Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto, chief of the regulatory and enforcement division of the Department of Health regional office and of the BFAD.

Jacinto said this showed that the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit and or fake medicines is still continuing despite the seizure of large shipment of counterfeit medicines by the National Bureau of Investigation and the police last year.

The counterfeit medicines consisted of bottled syrup, vials, viagra which was believed sourced out from Central Luzon for distribution to Pangasinan, Rivera said.

Both Apelado and Quiroz initially said the counterfeit medicines were dropped to them by certain persons for distribution to various specified outlets in Pangasinan.