Four Arrested for Illegal Sale of Milk Powder in Sancti Spiritus

The police seized 210 bags filled with powdered milk. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2020 — An illegal network dedicated to the reimbursement and sale of powdered milk in Sancti Spíritus was dismantled with the help of a public complaint, sources from the Interior Ministry informed Cuban Television. Four people were arrested in the police operation, including three officials from the Río Zaza dairy company.

A citizen who lived in a house in the Toyo neighborhood in the capital of Espírito Santo and who rented the house illegally, was in charge of the small artisan factory that packaged and sealed the bags of milk powder.

The powdered milk was stolen from the company with the help of the three workers who received part of the profits from the clandestine

The police seized 210 bags filled with the product, 6,520 CUP, a sealing machine of Island manufacture, several rolls of polyethylene that were used in the containers, two means of transport and other goods.

Regarding the defendants, it was known that two are being kept in provisional prison and two are under the conditional measure of cash bail. The network could be related to other similar crimes so the investigative process will be expanded, according to authorities.

The milk that was diverted for illegal sale, according to the official media report, is used in regulated sales for children, the elderly and people on a medical diet.

With the worsening of the food crisis in Cuba, the scarcity and poor quality of powdered milk that is supplied to the population have been topics addressed in several independent media. In the first months of the year, the provinces of Holguín, Santiago de Cuba and Sancti Spíritus reported a shortage of the product in the state chain stores.

At the beginning of September this newspaper reported on the complaints of some mothers who denounced “a different aspect” that they had noticed in the “fortified milk” that the Government sells every month for children under one year of age, in the network of ration stores, called bodegas.

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