95 nabbed over tainted pork in China

95 nabbed over tainted pork in China

Police in Central China's Henan province have taken 95 people implicated last month in a tainted pork scandal into custody and have successfully solved the case.

Police said they have closed the the case, which began with the discovery that the Henan-based Shuanghui Group, China's largest meat processor, had bought pigs fed with clenbuterol, an illegal additive also described as "lean meat powder".

Clenbuterol helps pigs burn fat and results in leaner and more expensive meat.

It can cause heart palpitations and dizziness in people. In China, the substance has been banned as an additive in animal feed since 2002.

The illegal factory where the clenbuterol was produced has been closed, a senior official with Henan's public security department, who requested anonymity, told Xinhua News Agency.

The police seized 14 suspects on March 15, when a subsidiary of Shuanghui was first found to have used the additive.

By March 29, the police had taken into custody every suspect believed to be a party to the case, including producers, sellers and buyers of the drug.

The suspects were from Hubei, Henan, Shaanxi and Jiangsu provinces.

A veterinarian taking samples from pigsAccording to the official, the clenbuterol in Henan was produced in a chemical factory in Baquan village of Xiangyang city, in Hubei province.

One of the chief suspects, surnamed Liu, worked in the factory and was in charge of a workshop.

He secretly produced clenbuterol in addition to doing his daily work. Nobody in the plant knew of his covert undertakings until the police arrived on March 22.

Liu, 42, majored in chemistry and once worked in a pharmaceutical factory. In 2007, a man named Xi from Jiangsu, another chief suspect, asked Liu to cooperate and manufacture the "profitable additive".
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Liu used the workshop in the chemical factory and succeeded in producing clenbuterol by himself after four months of experimenting.

Hetold the police he made a fortune by selling the drug at a price of 2,000 yuan (RM924.70) a kilogram to Xi and another buyer from Henan, surnamed Chen.

That buyer added starch to the chemical and sold it to middlemen, who then turned around and sold it to the final buyers - farmers who raise pigs.

The police arrested Chen and Xi. Other suspects in custody include three purchasing workers from Shuanghui.
Source: China Daily/ANN

Published Apr 11 2011