A six-year-old pharmaceutical crime ring has been crushed in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, after the Hawks raided and shut down an unregistered pharmacy that had been illegally dispensing medication since 2019.
The Hawks’ Nelspruit-based Serious Organised Crime Investigation unit, working jointly with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), White River Flying Squad, and Acornhoek Local Criminal Record Centre, arrested the 50-year-old owner and four employees — two women aged 35 and 44, and two men aged 35 and 48 — for contravening the Medical and Related Substances Act and the Pharmacy Act.
Provincial Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Magonseni Nkosi said investigators acted on intelligence from SAHPRA about the pharmacy’s unlawful operations.
“When officers executed the search warrant, they found four employees dispensing medicines without any recognised pharmaceutical qualifications. None of them could produce proof of competence to operate in a pharmacy, yet business was continuing as usual,” Nkosi said.
The owner, who was not present during the raid, was later summoned to the scene. Upon arrival, he too failed to produce a valid operating licence or any professional credentials.
Not recognised
Further checks confirmed that the business was not registered with the South African Pharmacy Council, yet had been selling everything from common painkillers to highly controlled substances.
According to the Hawks, medicines ranging from Schedules 1 to 6 were seized, including strong prescription drugs that can only be dispensed under strict regulation. The total value of the confiscated stock is still under investigation.
The provincial head of the Hawks in Mpumalanga, Major General Nico Gerber, lauded the inter-agency cooperation that exposed the long-running scam.
“It has been six years since the owner began operating illegally. One cannot imagine how many people may have been directly or indirectly affected. We are pleased that the establishment is now closed and further harm to human life has been prevented,” said Gerber.
The suspects are expected to appear in court next week while investigations continue. Authorities say the crackdown forms part of a wider national effort to root out unlicensed pharmacies and clamp down on the dangerous circulation of unregulated medication in rural areas.
