August 6, 2026
Reading time • 5 min
Police Shut Down Clandestine Weight-Loss Products Lab and Arrest 2 Brazilians
The operation is yet another crackdown by the Paraguayan government against a multimillion-dollar scheme that supplies Brazil
On Thursday (6), the National Police uncovered a clandestine laboratory producing counterfeit weight-loss pills that was operating out of a luxury home in Pedro Juan Caballero, a city neighboring Ponta Porã, 313 km from Campo Grande. Two Brazilians and one Paraguayan were arrested.
This is the second crackdown by Paraguayan authorities this week against the million-dollar scheme involving the counterfeiting and sale of so-called “weight-loss pens” that fuel the illegal trade in Mato Grosso do Sul.
Yesterday, 11 pharmacies in Pedro Juan Caballero were shut down by Dinavisa (National Health Surveillance Directorate), the Paraguayan agency equivalent to Brazil’s Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency).
This morning, teams from the Amambay Police Department for Prevention and Security and the Department for Combating Economic and Financial Crimes arrived at the laboratory on Mariscal López Avenue, in the neighborhood of the same name.
At the site, two Brazilian nationals, Marco Antonio Teixeira Furtado, 37, and João Paulo Moura Neves, 33, were arrested. Both also held Paraguayan identification documents. The third person arrested was Juan Martínez Ovando, a 32-year-old Paraguayan national.
Police officers and staff from the Paraguayan Public Prosecutor’s Office seized medications, raw materials, vials, and other items related to the counterfeiting and illegal production of pharmaceutical products, including the weight-loss drugs “Tirzepatida,” “T.G.,” and “Retatrutida,” the sale of which is prohibited in Paraguay because they are still in the testing phase in the United States.
Deputy Commissioner Marcelo Ojeda and Prosecutor Katia Uemura coordinated the searches, which were ordered by the Court of Guarantees in Pedro Juan Caballero. The investigation is ongoing.
