12 charged in theft of hospital supplies

The 12 people allegedly linked to the theft of medicines and supplies from the Social Security Fund (CSS), were indicted with charges of illicit association, 10 of these provisionally detained, after a hearing held in the Accusatory Penal System of the La Chorrera district.

The charges were brought by the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office, which also succeeded in having four charged with embezzlement as perpetrators, and 7 individuals as accomplices.

The people were apprehended in various raids through the ‘Operation Supplies’,  an investigation that began in April directed by the Public Ministry in coordination with the National Police, carried out at various residences in the provinces of Panama and Panama Oeste, where supplies and medicines were located. They were stolen from the deposits and warehouses of the Arraiján Polyclinic and the Pediatric Specialties Hospital, both belonging to the CSS.

In the raids, they found 75 bundles of paper towels, 70 boxes of toilet paper, a large number of medications, defibrillators, signed and blank disability notebooks, containers for collection of samples, surgical gowns, stethoscopes, gauze, and boxes of swab sample kits, among others.