Two Chinese nationals facing charges of producing and trafficking counterfeit weight-loss drugs were arrested Tuesday and will face those charges in Denver, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday in a statement.
Accused manufacturer Sengyang Zhou, 30, was arrested in Hawaii on Tuesday and will be brought to Denver by U.S. Marshals.
Qingming Hu, 60, was arrested in Plano, Texas, and is accused of aiding the scheme. She was released on bond after agreeing to appear in Denver later to faces charges.
Zhou traveled from China to Hawaii on the premise of meeting people he thought were interested in distributing his counterfeit weight loss pills in the United States.
His arrest was the culmination of a joint investigation by several federal agencies.
The weight-loss drugs were determined by the FDA to include the controlled substance Sibutramine, antidepressants, “potent diuretics” available only by prescription and drugs not legal in the United States, according to federal prosecutors since 2008.
The FDA had issued warnings for the products marketed over the Internet as Superslim, 2 Day Diet and Meitzitang being imported from China. The FDA warned that the products “a very serious health risk to consumers,” prosecutors said in a statement.
At least one customer fell ill from the drug.
Zhou’s website, , indicated that his business ran its United States branch out of Plano, Texas. That business was operated by Hu, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, according to the charges.
“This arrest is evidence that no matter where you are, be it in the United States or abroad, if you use the U.S. mail to endanger the American public, we will find you,” said Shawn Tiller, inspector-in-charge of the Denver division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said in a statement.
