Low-quality coffee powder turns into a popular "diet pill", 10 tons of which have already flowed into the market

Yangzi Evening News reported on May 3 (correspondent Chen Hukai Xiaojing reporter Zhu Dingzhao) After adding sibutramine hydrochloride or phenolphthalein to inferior coffee powder, it was then stolen from the name of other people's products and transformed into a popular fake weight loss drug - "L-carnitine Coffee King". When the Huai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone police cracked this case of producing and selling toxic and harmful foods supervised by the Ministry of Public Security in 16 months across 5 provinces and 6 cities, the group of suspects had produced 18 tons of fake "L-carnitine Coffee King" weight loss drugs in one year and one month. In addition to the 8 tons seized on the spot, the remaining 10 tons have flowed into the market. On the 3rd, the Huai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone police disclosed the case to the media for the first time. Except for a production supervisor named Wang who is on the run, the other 12 criminal suspects have been taken criminal compulsory measures by the police. The Huai'an police are tracking the flow of this batch of 10 tons of fake drugs.

Young couple runs "online black shop" to sell "harmful weight loss drugs"

At the beginning of last year, Ms. Zhu, a Huai'an resident, felt dizzy and vomited after taking a popular diet pill called "L-Carnitine Coffee King" purchased online. Suspecting that she had taken fake diet pills, Ms. Zhu sent the remaining diet pills to the Huai'an Food and Drug Administration for testing. The results showed that a large amount of sibutramine hydrochloride, phenolphthalein and other chemical substances were illegally added. The Huai'an Food and Drug Administration then handed over the clues of the case to the Huai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone police.

"According to previous experience, the parties involved in buying fake weight loss pills online are not just online store sales, but also multiple sellers behind the scenes," said Yuan Xuegao, deputy director of the Haikou Road Police Station of the Huai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone Public Security Bureau, who participated in the investigation of the case. After investigation, the police quickly identified the young couple Sun from Suqian who operated an online store to sell the weight loss pills, and they still shipped them to all parts of the country through logistics every day. Without further ado, the Huai'an police rushed to Suqian and arrested the couple. As expected, the couple's explanation verified the police's previous judgment that they had a supplier of the supply channel - far away in Zhengzhou, Henan.

"As the case was dug deeper, we didn't expect the suspects to be from five provinces and six cities across the country," said Yuan Xuegao. After preliminary investigation and evidence collection, Huai'an police found that the entire group of people involved in the case had formed a complete profit chain that included production, processing, sales and online platform sales. Due to the complexity of the case, the case was listed as a case for supervision by the Ministry of Public Security.

When the upstream supplier sells raw materials, it "friendly reminds" the downstream supplier to add a certain proportion

In Zhengzhou, Henan, when the Huai'an Development Zone police arrested the supplier provided by the Suqian couple Sun, they found that the supplier did not directly process and sell the products. "There must be suspects above them who sell various raw materials, provide processing methods, and process raw materials into products," Ye Zeyu, a special police officer, told reporters. After a period of hard investigation, all the clues pointed to a woman named Xu.

Xu has a food processing factory in Xiayi County, Henan Province. Investigations have revealed that the factory does not produce during the day and draws the curtains during nighttime production. When Huai'an police were about to arrest Xu, Xu disappeared from their sight. "We probably alerted her when we were arresting other suspects in Zhengzhou," Deputy Director Yuan Xuegao told reporters. With the assistance of local police, Huai'an police tracked Xu's family and finally arrested her. At that time, Xu's processing factory had just shipped out 6 tons of fake diet pills. The police immediately tracked the whereabouts of the 6 tons of fake diet pills and promptly seized more than 4 tons of fake diet pills that had not yet been shipped.

According to the suspect Xu, her main raw materials for production, sibutramine hydrochloride and phenolphthalein, were purchased from a woman surnamed Huang in Guangzhou. When purchasing, the woman surnamed Huang also kindly reminded her that when adding sibutramine hydrochloride and phenol to each ton of inferior coffee powder, it should not exceed a certain amount, otherwise, the person who consumes it will be in danger of death. According to Yuan Xuegao, when they were investigating and collecting evidence in Shandong, a victim had a tongue twitch when speaking after taking the fake weight loss pills. Later, after communicating with the online store seller, he was compensated several hundred yuan.

10 tons of 18 tons of fake diet pills have already flown into the market

On the outer packaging of this fake weight loss drug called "L-Carnitine Coffee King", the reporter saw that in addition to the Chinese and English introductions, there was also a German introduction, in addition to the manufacturer, production license, and health food brand name. The police told the reporter that they were actually all fake.

"The final online store selling price is 69 yuan per can, while the purchase price is 18 yuan, which shows how high the profit is." According to Yuan Xuegao, because the inferior coffee powder tastes bad, the suspects added sibutramine, which is banned by the State Food and Drug Administration, to the inferior coffee powder mainly to change the taste, and added phenolphthalein to make the victims feel anorexia, diarrhea and other symptoms when taking the fake weight loss pills, so as to achieve a short-term weight loss effect. Fortunately, the Huai'an Development Zone police spent 16 months traveling to 5 provinces and 6 cities across the country, and finally dug out the profit chain of the four major links of production, processing, sales, and online platform sales in this case. A total of 8 tons of "L-carnitine coffee king" harmful drugs were seized, but 10 tons of this fake weight loss pills have already flowed into the market. The Huai'an police are tracking the flow of these 10 tons of fake drugs.

Huai'an police remind beauty-conscious people that sibutramine hydrochloride has the effect of suppressing appetite and may cause serious side effects such as increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, anorexia, insomnia, abnormal liver function, etc. On October 30, 2010, the State Food and Drug Administration issued a clear order prohibiting the production, sale and use of sibutramine preparations and raw materials in my country. Phenolphthalein is often used to detect acid and base, and can directly stimulate the intestinal mucosa to increase the propulsion of the intestine. Long-term use can damage the enteric nervous system. Everyone loves beauty, but if you want to lose weight, you still have to choose a healthy way, control your mouth, move your legs, eat less and exercise more. If you want to choose diet pills to lose weight, please be sure to choose a regular and guaranteed way and purchase medicines from reliable sources. Editor: Wang Yuxin