Consumer protection police and Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) officials have broken a network allegedly producing and distributing to dealers across the country the “NQS Cross” weight loss supplement, which was laced with sibutramine,.

About 7,000 boxes of the appetite suppressing supplement, worth about two million baht, were seized and three suspects arrested in raids in Tak, Phitsanuloke and Sukhothai provinces last Thursday.

Police said that two of the suspects, identified as “Nutjaree” and “Suthathip”, are TikTok influencers who have a large number of followers, with the third, “Jutjaree”, being a major distributor of the “NQS Cross” supplement.

The suspects claim that they obtained the supplements from a woman called “Joobjaeng” in Tak province.

Police allege that sibutramine has been mixed with the weight loss supplement since last year and the product has become popular and easily available online.

Sibutramine, formerly sold under the brand name “Meridia” among others, is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor and an appetite suppressant, which has been discontinued in many countries.

Sibutramine affects chemicals in the brain that affect weight maintenance. It was approved by the USFDA in 1997 for the treatment of obesity, but was subsequently withdrawn from the US market in December 2010, after clinical data indicated that the substance poses an increased risk of cardiovascular events.

The three suspects face charges of selling a product containing sibutramine, a Category 1 psychotropic substance, without a licence, which could mean they face imprisonment for 1 to 15 years and/or a fine of up to 1.5 million baht if convicted.

Dealers of the product are also warned that they will face similar charges if they sell it.