- Sep 29, 2012
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Heres the story....
Loophole lets drug dealers sell deadly slimming pills openly over the web - Telegraph
One of the dealers uses the identity of a man linked to a notorious Manchester gang, while another is based in a market town in southern England and has seemingly stolen the identities of innocent individuals.
A drug called 2,4-Dinitrophenol, known as DNP, is being marketed and sold in pill form as a slimming aid, regardless of its potentially fatal consequences.
Last month an inquest heard how Sarah Houston, a 23-year-old medical student from Buckinghamshire, fell victim to the drug, which, although banned for human consumption, is not illegal to sell.
Miss Houston, who suffered from an eating disorder, died at her student house in Leeds last September after consuming DNP capsules she ordered from an Argentine website set up and run by a suspected cocaine smuggler.
The case highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem of the drug.
Now this newspaper can reveal that DNP is being sold in large quantities by British suppliers over the internet. The drug is sold openly online because it can be used as a pesticide and a chemical dye.
However, it is frequently promoted as a “fat burner” for bodybuilders and those desperate to lose weight.
Two of the websites identified by this newspaper are being investigated by police to establish if any illegal activity is taking place. The information gathered by The Sunday Telegraph has been passed to the relevant police forces.
One of the internet dealers sells the pills to customers through the brand name D-Hacks Laboratories. The Sunday Telegraph traced D-Hacks through internet chat forums but it also appears to operate through another website called Lab Rats.
Posing as a customer, this newspaper received an email from D-Hacks listing all its products and their prices. DNP is listed as a weight-loss product, with a warning: “Please do your research on DNP before you even think about ordering.” It went on: “Not for human consumption if you do not no [sic] what the side affect can result in.”
The Sunday Telegraph was offered DNP at £45 for 48 pills, each of 250 milligram dosage. The email added: “D-Hacks range will be label’d as vitamins in order to easly [sic] pass customs!”
The D-Hacks administrator asked for payment by cash transfer through the website MoneyGram, to be made
out to “Daniel Hackland, Manchester, England”. These transfers are sent and picked up from post office branches. Payment is also offered through a bank account set up at a Birmingham branch of a high street bank, in the name of J Brown.
There is only one listing of a Daniel Hackland in Manchester. He is a 28-year-old carpet fitter from Wythenshawe in the south of the city. There is no evidence that Mr Hackland runs D-Hacks and it may well be that his identity has been stolen.
Mr Hackland’s younger brother Matthew, 25, was sentenced to four years behind bars in 2008, after pleading guilty to three counts of burglary. He was jailed alongside four other members of the Newall Green Crew, a Manchester gang. Other members of the gang were jailed for a series of armed robberies.
The gang targeted homes with high-powered cars parked outside and posted videos on the internet of the vehicles they stole.
It is entirely possible somebody unrelated used the Hackland name to front the D-Hacks business.
Approached at his family home, Mr Hackland’s father, William, said: “He doesn’t want to talk to you. He’s got nothing to say. I don’t know anything about this. He works as a carpet fitter and what he does is his business.”
The day after this newspaper approached Mr Hackland, D-Hacks announced via email that it was closing down for two to three weeks, stating that “there will be no further orders due to moving location”.
Yesterday, D-Hacks announced to customers that it was stopping its operations.
In an email, it said: “Dear customer, D-Hacks is closing down and will no longer be in production … however our source who produce’s our dnp (dnpweb.net) is still producing and selling for future reference … THIS GOES OUT STRICTLY TO EXPERIENCED DNP USER’S ONLY!!!!!!”
“Sorry we just feel there is to many un-knowledge people using dnp and we no longer feel comfortable re-selling this product…
“(Regarding all other products on list) … we are no longer taking orders/payments for labrats so you will have to contact them direct… sorry and hope all is well!”
Another website in Britain selling DNP is hyperpeptides.co.uk, which internet records show was set up in 2011 alongside another site called anabolicpeptides.co.uk.
DNP is sold on the site under the product category “weight loss”. It is available in a capsule form — in other words for human consumption — at £50 for 250mg. The site also sells anabolic steroids, used by body builders to build muscle bulk, and which are class C drugs.
The address to which the website is registered is a cul-de-sac, in Hemel Hempstead, Herts. The family who live at the property, owned by a housing association, deny any knowledge of the site and insist they have never received related post. There is no suggestion that the family have any connection to the site.
A woman, who has lived at the house with her husband and their children for several years, said: “It’s really worrying that someone can do that. I’ll be reporting this to the police. I don’t know what else to do and it’s made me quite anxious.”
A batch of DNP from the Hyperpeptides website was sent from a post office in Hemel Hempstead to The Sunday Telegraph, which was posing as a customer. The consignment was sent registered delivery allowing the location of the post office to be traced. Payment for the pills was through a bank transfer. The account was registered at a branch of a high street bank in Bootle, Merseyside, in the name of JMH Nutrition.
Hertfordshire police said it would be investigating the Hyperpeptides website.
A force spokesman said: “We are very interested in this and we are grateful to The Sunday Telegraph for bringing it to our attention.
“We will be looking at the website and the individuals behind it very closely. It may be that some of the substances on sale are illegal, especially in the quantities in which they are being sold.”
Hemel Hempstead is just over 20 miles from High Wycombe, Bucks, where Sean Cleathero, a 28-year-old body builder died after taking a sachet of DNP. The father of one bought the substance at his local gym last October. Within three hours of taking it he was dead.
Three men in their 40s who are accused of selling him the drug are currently on bail, charged with Mr Cleathero’s manslaughter.
An investigation by this newspaper disclosed last week how Miss Houston bought her fatal batch of DNP from a website called dnpdnpdnp.com. Internet records show that the site was registered in the
Argentine town of Rosario by Pier Paolo Peagno.
Mr Peagno was arrested in Barcelona in September 2007, after 5lb 11oz of cocaine, with a street value of £126,000, was discovered hidden behind the sink of his hotel room in the Italian city of Genoa.
Mr Peagno has a London bank account based in Whitechapel, which faces being closed by HSBC. A bank spokesman said: “We take all allegations of criminal activity by customers and the use of our accounts very seriously. We thank The Sunday Telegraph for drawing this to our attention, we are investigating the situation and will take any appropriate action.”
Miss Houston’s parents have called for the authorities to do more to tackle the dangers posed by DNP to vulnerable individuals. Her mother Gina, a retired pharmacologist from Chesham, Bucks, said: “One of the problems is that West Yorkshire Police didn’t treat Sarah’s death as suspicious. They took the view that since the sale of DNP is not illegal then no crime had been committed. That was very frustrating for us as parents.”
Loophole lets drug dealers sell deadly slimming pills openly over the web - Telegraph
One of the dealers uses the identity of a man linked to a notorious Manchester gang, while another is based in a market town in southern England and has seemingly stolen the identities of innocent individuals.
A drug called 2,4-Dinitrophenol, known as DNP, is being marketed and sold in pill form as a slimming aid, regardless of its potentially fatal consequences.
Last month an inquest heard how Sarah Houston, a 23-year-old medical student from Buckinghamshire, fell victim to the drug, which, although banned for human consumption, is not illegal to sell.
Miss Houston, who suffered from an eating disorder, died at her student house in Leeds last September after consuming DNP capsules she ordered from an Argentine website set up and run by a suspected cocaine smuggler.
The case highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem of the drug.
Now this newspaper can reveal that DNP is being sold in large quantities by British suppliers over the internet. The drug is sold openly online because it can be used as a pesticide and a chemical dye.
However, it is frequently promoted as a “fat burner” for bodybuilders and those desperate to lose weight.
Two of the websites identified by this newspaper are being investigated by police to establish if any illegal activity is taking place. The information gathered by The Sunday Telegraph has been passed to the relevant police forces.
One of the internet dealers sells the pills to customers through the brand name D-Hacks Laboratories. The Sunday Telegraph traced D-Hacks through internet chat forums but it also appears to operate through another website called Lab Rats.
Posing as a customer, this newspaper received an email from D-Hacks listing all its products and their prices. DNP is listed as a weight-loss product, with a warning: “Please do your research on DNP before you even think about ordering.” It went on: “Not for human consumption if you do not no [sic] what the side affect can result in.”
The Sunday Telegraph was offered DNP at £45 for 48 pills, each of 250 milligram dosage. The email added: “D-Hacks range will be label’d as vitamins in order to easly [sic] pass customs!”
The D-Hacks administrator asked for payment by cash transfer through the website MoneyGram, to be made
out to “Daniel Hackland, Manchester, England”. These transfers are sent and picked up from post office branches. Payment is also offered through a bank account set up at a Birmingham branch of a high street bank, in the name of J Brown.
There is only one listing of a Daniel Hackland in Manchester. He is a 28-year-old carpet fitter from Wythenshawe in the south of the city. There is no evidence that Mr Hackland runs D-Hacks and it may well be that his identity has been stolen.
Mr Hackland’s younger brother Matthew, 25, was sentenced to four years behind bars in 2008, after pleading guilty to three counts of burglary. He was jailed alongside four other members of the Newall Green Crew, a Manchester gang. Other members of the gang were jailed for a series of armed robberies.
The gang targeted homes with high-powered cars parked outside and posted videos on the internet of the vehicles they stole.
It is entirely possible somebody unrelated used the Hackland name to front the D-Hacks business.
Approached at his family home, Mr Hackland’s father, William, said: “He doesn’t want to talk to you. He’s got nothing to say. I don’t know anything about this. He works as a carpet fitter and what he does is his business.”
The day after this newspaper approached Mr Hackland, D-Hacks announced via email that it was closing down for two to three weeks, stating that “there will be no further orders due to moving location”.
Yesterday, D-Hacks announced to customers that it was stopping its operations.
In an email, it said: “Dear customer, D-Hacks is closing down and will no longer be in production … however our source who produce’s our dnp (dnpweb.net) is still producing and selling for future reference … THIS GOES OUT STRICTLY TO EXPERIENCED DNP USER’S ONLY!!!!!!”
“Sorry we just feel there is to many un-knowledge people using dnp and we no longer feel comfortable re-selling this product…
“(Regarding all other products on list) … we are no longer taking orders/payments for labrats so you will have to contact them direct… sorry and hope all is well!”
Another website in Britain selling DNP is hyperpeptides.co.uk, which internet records show was set up in 2011 alongside another site called anabolicpeptides.co.uk.
DNP is sold on the site under the product category “weight loss”. It is available in a capsule form — in other words for human consumption — at £50 for 250mg. The site also sells anabolic steroids, used by body builders to build muscle bulk, and which are class C drugs.
The address to which the website is registered is a cul-de-sac, in Hemel Hempstead, Herts. The family who live at the property, owned by a housing association, deny any knowledge of the site and insist they have never received related post. There is no suggestion that the family have any connection to the site.
A woman, who has lived at the house with her husband and their children for several years, said: “It’s really worrying that someone can do that. I’ll be reporting this to the police. I don’t know what else to do and it’s made me quite anxious.”
A batch of DNP from the Hyperpeptides website was sent from a post office in Hemel Hempstead to The Sunday Telegraph, which was posing as a customer. The consignment was sent registered delivery allowing the location of the post office to be traced. Payment for the pills was through a bank transfer. The account was registered at a branch of a high street bank in Bootle, Merseyside, in the name of JMH Nutrition.
Hertfordshire police said it would be investigating the Hyperpeptides website.
A force spokesman said: “We are very interested in this and we are grateful to The Sunday Telegraph for bringing it to our attention.
“We will be looking at the website and the individuals behind it very closely. It may be that some of the substances on sale are illegal, especially in the quantities in which they are being sold.”
Hemel Hempstead is just over 20 miles from High Wycombe, Bucks, where Sean Cleathero, a 28-year-old body builder died after taking a sachet of DNP. The father of one bought the substance at his local gym last October. Within three hours of taking it he was dead.
Three men in their 40s who are accused of selling him the drug are currently on bail, charged with Mr Cleathero’s manslaughter.
An investigation by this newspaper disclosed last week how Miss Houston bought her fatal batch of DNP from a website called dnpdnpdnp.com. Internet records show that the site was registered in the
Argentine town of Rosario by Pier Paolo Peagno.
Mr Peagno was arrested in Barcelona in September 2007, after 5lb 11oz of cocaine, with a street value of £126,000, was discovered hidden behind the sink of his hotel room in the Italian city of Genoa.
Mr Peagno has a London bank account based in Whitechapel, which faces being closed by HSBC. A bank spokesman said: “We take all allegations of criminal activity by customers and the use of our accounts very seriously. We thank The Sunday Telegraph for drawing this to our attention, we are investigating the situation and will take any appropriate action.”
Miss Houston’s parents have called for the authorities to do more to tackle the dangers posed by DNP to vulnerable individuals. Her mother Gina, a retired pharmacologist from Chesham, Bucks, said: “One of the problems is that West Yorkshire Police didn’t treat Sarah’s death as suspicious. They took the view that since the sale of DNP is not illegal then no crime had been committed. That was very frustrating for us as parents.”