Overview
- Customs investigators seized tea, coffee and capsules laced with the prohibited appetite suppressant sibutramine during searches in Hamburg and Lower Saxony.
- Authorities also found large quantities of illegally imported cosmetics, with combined black-market values for the seized goods exceeding €1.1 million.
- Tests identified sibutramine in weight-loss products and sennoside B in some teas, substances linked to serious health risks and restricted to regulated sale.
- Investigators reconstructed more than 15,000 shipments linked to an online sales operation and named eleven additional suspects under investigation.
- About 120 officers took part in the coordinated raids, which required several lorries to remove the goods, as the Hamburg prosecutor continues the case.