The Digital Journal has run several features on the risks associated with diet pills, but none so worrying and bizarre as this. The two students were studying in South Korea when they bought 3,000 diet pills and 500 detox pills off a Chinese website, according to Korea Times.
The two began selling the pills to other students. The two spent 20,000 won for each bottle of 30 pills, then sold each bottle for 60,000 won, a three-fold increase in profits.
When Jeju Maritime Police found and confiscated the pills at China's National Forensic Service, it was found that the pills contained human flesh. The Daily Mail notes that the pills also contained some nasty chemicals: sibutramine and phenolphthalein. Sibutramine is an oral anorexiant. It has been associated with increased cardiovascular events and strokes and has been withdrawn from the market in most countries and regions. Phenolphthalein is used in a test to identify substances that are thought to be, or to contain, blood. It is not suitable for human consumption.
Only the surnames of the two students have been revealed: a woman called Mo, aged 26, and man called Ahn, aged 21. As yet the story of how the pills came to contain human flesh is remains unknown. An even uglier side to this is the possibility that the flesh has been taken from babies.
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