Key Summary
- Almost 2,000 doses of unauthorised weight loss medicines awaiting dispatch to customers seized.
- They also seized manufacturing equipment, suspected pharmaceutical ingredients, packaging, and commercial vehicles.
- The operation follows a raid in October 2025 that dismantled the UK’s first illicit weight loss medicine manufacturing facility in Northampton.
A raid on two separate premises in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire has busted an organised criminal network involved in the manufacture and sale of unlicensed weight loss medicines.
Officers from the Criminal Enforcement Unit (CEU) of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), supported by Lincolnshire Police, seized almost 2,000 doses of unauthorised weight loss medicines awaiting dispatch to customers.
They also seized manufacturing equipment, suspected pharmaceutical ingredients, packaging, and commercial vehicles.
The two premises, a farm near Sleaford and a residential address in Grantham, have been allegedly used to manufacture and distribute unlicensed weight-loss medicines, including retatrutide and tirzepatide, as well as peptide products.
The operation follows a raid in October 2025, during which CEU officers dismantled the UK’s first illicit weight-loss medicine manufacturing facility in Northampton.
MHRA’s Criminal Enforcement Unit head, Andy Morling, said, “The message from today to those illegally trading in medicines could not be clearer: we are coming for you. Our raid in October was just the start."
DI Samuel Ward, of Lincolnshire Police’s Intelligence Development Unit claimed the operation has caused a serious disruption to a group profiting from unregulated weight loss drugs.
Health minister Dr Zubir Ahmed said, "This week’s raids have taken dangerous, unregulated products off our streets. These medicines are made with no regard for safety and pose serious risks. We will not allow criminals to profit by exploiting people looking for help with their weight."
He urged the people to avoid buying weight-loss medicines from unregulated sources.
“We are investing £25 million in better weight loss support programmes and referrals to weight loss jabs from GPs - where clinically appropriate - as part of our shift from sickness to prevention.”
