He broke his own record. A Madrid-based businessman is at the epicenter of a very lucrative and dangerous business selling illegal cosmetics and will be indicted not only for intellectual property violations, but probably also for crimes against public health.
Last year, the person under investigation has already managed to make history as the owner of the largest cache of these products, with more than 700,000 units seized; Today, almost twice as many (1,307,514) have been seized in two stores and a warehouse that this Asian importer and trader owns in the capital.
On Wednesday morning, agents from the Citizen Services Office of the Usera District Comprehensive Police Station of the Municipal Police went to the establishment run by the suspect in the neighborhood. The object, resulting in part from the June 2023 operation, must have been sealed and immobilized. But he put it back on sale. In fact, the Community of Madrid had fined him 120,000 euros, but the businessman divided his business into two new companies; When he learned that the file had become two (one for each new company), he tried another trick: he unified them into another anonymous company, but different from the first. In short, he neither paid the fine nor closed the businesses located in Tetuán and Usera.
Officers found a thousand boxes in the warehouse; Among them, they located 700 units of nail polish containing banned carcinogens, such as benzophenone (aromatic ketone), formaldehyde (highly volatile and highly flammable) and tosylamide. The added problem is that these polishes were resold to many nail salons.
Likewise, the municipal police discovered around thirty counterfeits of luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Dior (supposedly purchased in stores on Serrano Street)… There were no invoices and it was of gifts that the businessman offered to VIP clients, those. who placed the biggest orders. Additionally, the warehouse lacked fire protection, ventilation and the light box was exposed, with some cables outside. The bathroom was so dirty that the toilet was unusable.
One of the carcinogenic nail polishes
The actors informed the hygienic-sanitary service of the Community of Madrid (the material was sealed), the Health Department of the Town Halls of Tetuán and Usera, the Fire Brigade, the Spanish Medicines Agency and Customs Surveillance (numerous products come from China). ) and the police procedure was transmitted to the Specialized Violent Delinquency Unit (UDEV) of the National Police, because carcinogenic substances were found in the nail polish, CNP sources report. They come from two manufacturers on which investigations have been opened.
When the Chinese businessman was asked why he put them up for sale again, the interviewee replied: “I am aware that I should have destroyed them, because they warned me in July 2023, and I was going to do it through an approved organization. waste manager.”, but ultimately I didn’t do it and I didn’t want to throw them in the town hall trash cans. In addition, he had hidden no less than 3,000 liters of acetone and hydroalcoholic gels.
Five years in focus
The individual has been monitored since 2019 by the Madrid municipal police. He first had an establishment on Nicolás Sánchez Street, in Usera, which he joined with the annex. It was sealed after an initial inspection and sanctioned, as already mentioned. After this Fraile operation, he was prohibited from manufacturing this type of substance. At the time of the Citizen Services Bureau’s intervention on Wednesday, the person indicted had just received an order from China for more than 80,000 products.
In June last year, the seizure amounted to 710,000 counterfeit products that also contained carcinogenic components. The investigation began in early 2023 when the Regional Department of Consumer Affairs received a complaint regarding the possible fraudulent sale of a medicine requiring a medical prescription in some stores on Nicolás Usera and Marcelo Usera streets.
The municipal police then launched Operation Botica to search various parapharmacies in the district, among which that of Nicolás Usera was not included because it was closed. However, officers continued investigations and verified that it reopened in May and that several people were manufacturing cosmetic products there without authorization. And the device called Fraile began. The labels were only in Chinese, they reflected neither the place of origin, nor the expiration date, nor traceability.
