International Police Arrest Convicted ‘Doctor’

INVESTIGATION of a man who authorities say passed himself off as a doctor while heading a drug company here continued this week, after International Police (INTERPOL) and Costa Rican authorities arrested the man, Spanish citizen Agustín Font, in Sixaola, a town on the border with Panama, according to a statement from INTERPOL.

Font, 51, is wanted in Spain for fraud, false documentation and crimes against public health. In 1998, he received a six-year prison sentence in Spain, of which he has already served three years and eight months, the statement said.

INTERPOL and Costa Rican police arrested Font at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 24 as he returned to Costa Rica from Panama.

The San José resident entered Costa Rica in October 1999 and belonged to the board of directors of various pharmaceutical companies, according to the statement. Font owns Alsa Laboratorios in San Francisco de Dos Ríos, east of San José, inaugurated in 2004 in the presence of Public Health Minister Rocío Sáenz, the daily La Nación reported.

The San José Criminal Court is working on Font’s extradition, solicited by the Spanish government. Meanwhile, Alsa Laboratorios is under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office, which requested details on the permits the Public Health Ministry gave Alsa for operation and distribution of its products, according to La Nación.

The laboratories sold weight-loss products that the ministry described as risky because they can generate complications such as infections and the destruction of tissues, the daily reported.