Archive image of doses of a coronavirus vaccine (Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN Spanish) -
A group of Hondurans who were seized a number of alleged Sputnik V vaccines against covid-19 managed to evade the Mexican authorities and are in Honduras, according to the Mexican Prosecutor's Office.
Those involved intended to fly on March 17 to San Pedro Sula, in northern Honduras, in a private plane from Campeche, in southern Mexico, with 1,062 containers with a substance labeled as the Russian vaccine, reported the General Administration of Customs in Mexico the next day.
The Mexican Prosecutor's Office reported this Wednesday in a statement the review of a cooler that was on the plane.
There "they found these containers in a double bottom inside."
He added that "by not having legal certainty of the content of such containers, the Customs personnel only made the cooler with the containers and the aircraft available to the Public Ministry."
The pilot and passengers were later located in a hotel in Campeche "from which they departed evading surveillance," the Prosecutor's Office denounced in the document.
Vaccine analysis
It also clarifies that it must wait for the response of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), the entity in charge of analyzing the contents of the vaccine containers to determine if they are false or not.
"To date, the Cofepris expert opinion on what the content is has not been received at the Public Ministry Agency," the Prosecutor's Office explained in the statement.
And he assures that by having the results "he will prosecute the case."
advertising
CNN contacted Cofepris to find out if this result is available now, but it is still waiting for a response.
The agency published a message on Twitter this Wednesday in which it affirmed that "it is focused on putting all its technical, scientific and surveillance resources to attend to this worrying fact."
It also says that it maintains a "direct communication channel with the Prosecutor's Office to attend to this request."
Following the seizure, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement that it had examined photographs of the packaging and labels and believed that the product was therefore a fake.
They are in Honduras
The Mexican Prosecutor's Office did not delve into how the group of Hondurans managed to evade their surveillance or report on their whereabouts.
A source with knowledge of the case told CNN that the passengers are already in the Central American country.
The passengers who intended to travel with the seized vaccines arrived in Campeche in a plane rented by Grupo Karim's in Honduras, a source linked to aviation in that country told CNN.
This company is a Honduran textile company specialized in maquiladoras that also has offices in Mexico.
Some of the passengers were employees of the company, which admitted that the seized doses were their property.
CNN has tried to contact Karim's Group to find out how it obtained these vaccines.
In Mexico injections can only be marketed from government to government.
We have not received a response so far.
The position of the company
The company said this Tuesday in a statement that "at no time and under no circumstances did the Karim's Group intend to illegally introduce vaccines into the national territory (Honduras), being fully aware that their entry must be in full compliance with the corresponding administrative, customs and sanitary procedures ”.
Honduras has access to vaccines against covid-19 through the Covax mechanism of the Pan American Health Organization.
Only the government can authorize other operations.
Private sale is not authorized in the country, Francis Contreras, commissioner president of the Sanitary Regulation Agency (ARSA), told several local media.
The document adds: «We reject any indication or information that seeks to guide public opinion that the intention of the Karim's Group was to commercialize the vaccines in Honduran territory.
The purpose of bringing these vaccines was solely and exclusively to be applied free of charge to our collaborators and their families.
These vaccines would be applied following the vaccination protocols established by the Honduran health authorities. "
It also points out that "neither the Karim's Group nor its executives have been charged with any crime."
Vaccinated in Mexico
Mexican authorities are also investigating the inoculation of several employees of Grupo Karim's at facilities in the Mexican state of Campeche.
Two workers spoke anonymously with CNN for fear of retaliation and said that they were vaccinated by nurses from the company itself and outside the protocols of the official health network.
They are concerned that the substance they received might be fake.
The Karim's Group statement mentions nothing about its workers in Mexico.
Belén Zapata contributed to this report.
Coronavirus Vaccine