Falsification and Turnover of Falsified Medicines: Detection the Signs of Crime and Beginning of Criminal Proceedings

Abstract

The article explores the problems of detecting features of falsification and trafficking of counterfeit medicines and the beginning of criminal proceedings.
 The purpose of the article is to study the criminalistic nature and significance of the beginning of criminal proceedings as a structural element of the crime investigation methodology, to determine the features of the beginning of the investigation of falsification and trafficking of counterfeit medicines and to determine their influence on the effectiveness of pre-trial investigation of this category of crimes.
 It is substantiated that the systematization of the characteristics of the crime under investigation should be carried out according to the criterion of reason for entering information in the Unified Register of pre-trial investigations. Based on the results of the summarization of the materials of the forensic and investigative practice, special attention should be paid to revealing the signs of the investigated crime from the materials of the operative-search activity, reports of the State Service of Medicines and Drug Control, statements of the victims. This gives grounds to claim that criminal procedural and organizational and tactical features of the beginning of criminal proceedings are essential for the effective investigation of counterfeiting and trafficking of counterfeit medicines.
 It was established that the specifics of the beginning of the criminal proceedings of the investigated crime, first of all, is manifested in the features of the systematization of signs of falsification or trafficking of counterfeit drugs, the need for the investigator to interact with the State Drug Service and drug control, which is due to the regulatory system of pharmaceutical activity in Ukraine. Based on the specifics of the crime under investigation, the need to highlight the identification of the characteristics of the crime in question and the features of the initiation of pre-trial investigation as an independent structural element of the forensic methodology of investigating falsification and trafficking of counterfeit medicines is substantiated.