Two Chinese nationals accused of producing and trafficking counterfeit weight-loss drugs were arrested Tuesday and will face charges in Denver, the U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday.
Manufacturer Sengyang Zhou, 30, was arrested in Hawaii 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 bail 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 other substances illegal in the U.S., according to federal prosecutors.
The FDA had issued warnings on the products marketed over the Internet under the names Superslim, 2 Day Diet and Meitzitang, saying they posed “a very serious health risk to consumers.”
