Russian authorities have arrested and charged three people after more than 120 people in Moscow and dozens in other cities fell ill with suspected food poisoning symptoms.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, announced that it had arrested the head of a food manufacturing company, as well as the director and head of quality control of a food distribution service.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that more than 120 people consulted doctors in Moscow after developing symptoms of poisoning and suspected symptoms of botulism, a rare life-threatening disease that attacks the body’s nervous system and causes breathing problems and muscle paralysis. The bacterium that causes the disease can enter the body by eating food that has not been properly preserved.

Nearly 30 people in Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod, cities east of Moscow, also visited hospitals with botulism symptoms, Interfax added.

Dozens of people in the three cities are being treated in intensive care units. An official in Moscow, cited by Interfax, said the patients were under constant observation and that their symptoms were not life-threatening.

The Investigative Committee announced that it had found that the food companies had violated many health and epidemiological rules, including failing to submit laboratory test reports and performing insufficient production controls.

Investigators also noted that those arrested were also charged with facilitating the illegal immigration of Uzbek citizens. Many food distribution workers in Russia come from Central Asian countries.