ILLEGAL slimming pills worth thousands of pounds have been seized from a children’s wardrobe at a house in Bolton.

Officers from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) carried out a dawn raid at a semi-detached house near Bolton town centre and the Scholey Street police station on May 15.

They discovered 26,000 imported Lida DaidDaiHua pills which carry a street value of £50,000.

The tablets were found in a semi-detached house in a cul-de-sac close to Bolton town centre and the police station in Scholey Street.

Most were taken from a child’s warbrobe in a bedroom in the house, but some were seized from a nearby lock-up garage.

The pills were being sold on a website called Zenj Slimming, which described itself as “your complete guide to a healthy lifestyle” and has since been shut down.

A batch of 10 boxes of the tablets was being sold for £125, with the site also selling breast enlargement cream.

As well as the tablets, which were in blister packs, agency officers also found packaging ready to be used to distribute the drugs to customers.

Despite claiming to be “100 per cent herbal”, the tablets contained a drug callled Sibutramine, a former prescripted drug removed from the market in Britain in 2010 because of fears it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The drug was a popular slimming tool as it alters chemical messages sent to the brain which control food cravings.

A man in his 30s was questioned on suspicion of unlicensed medicines offences.

Danny Lee-Frost, MHRA head of operations, said: “We seized approximately 26,000 tablets of a slimming product that claims to be 100 per cent herbal, which in reality contains the ingredient Sibutramine.

"Anyone taking these pills would think from the packaging that they are a safe and natural product, but anyone with a heart problem could be at risk of a heart attack or a stroke and they just wouldn’t know.

"The people selling these medicines do not care about your health, only about their bank balance.

"To be safe visit your GP, get a correct diagnosis and buy medicines from a legitimate high street or registered online pharmacy.”

The Bolton raid was one in the 7th national Operation Pangea, which saw £8.6 million of unlicensed or counterfeit medicines seized acorss the UK between May 11 and May 21.