Italian law enforcement officials announced on Thursday the seizure of millions of counterfeit medical devices, notably from China, including masks and surgical kits, worth a total of more than 11 million euros.
A first operation by the Italian financial police targeted a wholesaler in Florence, in the center of the country, which held in a huge warehouse more than 16 million medical equipment with a counterfeit CE marking or without marking at all, according to a statement.
This equipment includes surgical masks, syringes, needles, clothing for health workers and surgical kits.
The more than 650,000 surgical masks were all without CE marking, as were 659 kg of powdered food supplements as well as 500,000 capsules of vitamins and hyaluronic acid, used in cosmetics.
The value of the seized objects amounts to approximately eight million euros.
Masks for civil protection in Lombardy
In another operation, the financial police seized more than 1.3 million surgical masks of the FFP2 and KN95 type, the latter having Chinese and non-European certification.
All these masks, from China, were to be delivered to civil protection in Lombardy, northern region, according to a second police statement specifying that the value of the seized masks is around 3.2 million euros.
At the start of the Covid-19 epidemic in March 2020 when they were rare, fraudulent hydroalcoholic masks and gels had been discovered by the Italian police.