DUBBED the “Godzilla” of fat jabs, they are the groundbreaking weight loss injectables said to help slimmers shed a quarter of their body in just a year.
Initial tests claim retatrutide, which sells for up to £240-a-pop online, is twice as effective as Ozempic and Brits are doing anything to get their hands on it.
But the obsession with super-speed slimming is putting users in grave danger because the drug, developed by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, has not even been released to the public yet.
In fact, it’s still undergoing medical trials – where its risks and effectiveness will be weighed up and debated prior to it being deemed safe for use among the public.
Yet shady British dealers on Facebook, TikTok and elsewhere online are sourcing knock-offs versions, which have been linked to organised crime gangs‘ dodgy pop-up labs here and in China.
That’s the biggest concern for police and health bosses who warn ANYTHING could be inside the injections “even toxic substances” that could put lives at risk.
Months ago, an illegal production factory was shut down in Northamptonshire, after police found more than 2,000 unlicensed retatrutide and Mounjaro pens alongside raw chemicals to make the drugs and thousands of empty cartridges.
Officers seized £250,000-worth of weight loss jabs – the largest haul to date – which highlights the vast profit gangs and peddlers, often corrupt gym bunnies, can make from the fakes, made from unknown substances.
“This is a victory in the fight against the shameless criminals who are putting lives at risk by peddling dangerous and illegal weight loss jabs to make a quick buck,” Health secretary Wes Streeting said after the raid in October.
Yet this dark and potentially deadly trade is already deeply entrenched in the UK with The Sun’s investigation finding rogues making thousands selling the drug online, often with eyeball-catching slogans like “Retta is betta”.
One such individual is Jamille Nicholas, who offered our reporter two ways to take the medication – either via a 30gm preloaded injection pen for £200 or mixing up our own ‘reta’ with powder and water for £180.
Knowing full well that the drug hadn’t been officially released, the Cardiff dad-of-one brazenly told us he couldn’t give advice on how much to inject because it could “only be sold for research purposes”. Later, he suggested a 2.5mg dose would be a good start.
Nicholas, who advertised the drug on TikTok under the name Sarms Pharma, appeared to be married to a fellow personal trainer and enjoyed exotic holidays to far-flung destinations like Bali.
But behind his apparent success, experts warn people are putting themselves at risk because retatrutide isn’t even out of clinical trials in America let alone on sale in the UK.
Nicholas, who ignored repeated requests for comment, is just one of dozens of get-rich-quick Brits who claim to be selling the drug on social media.
And many are falling prey to the black market offering, especially men in the bodybuilding community, including fitness coach Tom Holbrook, 26, who lost nearly two stone on it.
He told The Times: “I know it all comes from China and that it’s risky since it hasn’t been cleared yet but you see it online and everyone is doing it.”
Bodybuilder Jack, 16, said it was “famous” among his pals and he fell for the promise that “your whole life will change if you take this.”
Some found reta on social media, while others contacted the labs directly after finding groups of people willing to “do bulk orders” on private messaging app Telegram.
Yet, it’s clear some of the purchases may not be what they appear to be. One person on a fitness forum suffered worrying side-effects and had not consulted a doctor.
“A pain in my upper left abdomen and chest appeared suddenly, like behind my ribs,” they wrote. “I’ve also noticed that I go very faint when getting up too quickly.”
And mum Nicki Hari, 58, previously told us she is going bald as a result of the retatrutide jabs, which has already left a large section of her crown hairless.
Yet she insists: “I can’t stop it. For the first time in 30 years I am winning my weight battle. If I give it up I will die an early death”
‘Syringe of horror’
The risks of counterfeit fat jabs are clear.
Back in October, Karen McGonigal, 53, of Salford, Greater Manchester, died after using £20-a-time injectables bought from a beautician.
‘Retta is betta’ is their slogan, but I’d say not killing yourself is better
Scott Cheek, fat jabs user
Her daughter Ffion says her mum would vanish to a back room, while getting her nails done, to receive a suspected knock-off fat fab.
Ffion said that was “no preparation, no cleaning, nothing”, adding: “She’d give it to my mum, my mum would pay her, and she’d be out in three minutes.”
Four days after her final jab, Karen suddenly became unwell. She suffered severe stomach pains, struggled to breathe and her face turned purple. Days later in hospital she died.
Michelle Sword, 47, fell into a coma and nearly after using a fake Ozempic jab, which turned out to be insulin, when the injectables were “a lot harder to get hold of”.
She later said: “I can’t believe that I allowed my insecurities to almost kill me.”
Similarly Celebrity Big Brother star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, 46, said she thought she was “going to die” after using a “syringe of horror”.
She was bedridden for days, while constantly vomiting and barely able to walk to her toilet, and temporarily lost her eyesight.
£32k UK lab bust
Despite the clear risks, peddlers are continuing to make masses of profit from the drug.
In August, City of London police put out an appeal to help trace Christina Parfitt, 40, for her alleged part in an organised crime group flogging dodgy jabs.
The wanted woman, who is believed to have fled to Turkey, was caught with more than £32,000 worth of retatrutide and other weight loss drugs.
One senior police officer said “you can assume anyone selling this product is selling a counterfeit” due to it not being available in the UK.
They added: “People don’t know what they are buying and it could be something harmful or poisonous.”
Some claim to have lost four stone in as many months on the unlicensed drug, nicknamed “triple G” due to speeding up metabolism by targeting three hormones, alongside suppressing appetite.
These claims, coupled with price hikes for Ozempic and Mounjaro, have led to a 500 per cent spike in searches for the question: “Where to inject retatrutide?”
By law, fat-busting jabs should be prescription-only but sellers and their ‘ambassadors’ carelessly offered to sell us retatrutide with no matter what weight our reporter claimed to be.
Discounts & no weight checks
One TikToker called Claire offered a 15 percent discount if we used her name when ordering it through the firm Rettanox, which charged £140 for a month’s worth of injections.
Asked if you needed to be a certain weight to take it, she told us: “No, you don’t.”
Claire, who spoke with a northern accent, claimed sales had “gone crazy” and that Rettanox had a support group with over 800 customers.
Asked to explain why she was backing the firm she said: “I’m not a supplier. I’m using the product through my own choice and don’t want to be in any newspaper thank you.”
‘You’d be f***ing mental to use it,’ says fat jabs slimmer
Scott Cheek, who shed 36kg (5st 6lb) in a year using Mounjaro, calls The Sun’s findings “absolutely shocking” and urges people not to use the drug.
“You’d be f***ing mental, absolutely mental to do this,” says the drag queen, known as Christina Draguilera online, from London.
“Why would you inject yourself with something supplied from people you don’t know? You don’t even know what’s inside the injection and if it’s the real medication.
“For example, you’d never use black market Botox so why are you injecting something into your body when you can’t be 100 per cent certain what it is?
“‘Reta is better’ is their slogan, but I’d say not killing yourself is better in my opinion.”
Scott also raises concerns about there being no aftercare, nor a medical professional to monitor side effects and how the user is dealing with the drug.
He argues that the “drug shouldn’t even be produced” because existing fat jabs, which helped him drop from 105kg to 69kg, work quickly enough.
Scott adds: “I’m also deeply worried about the speed at which it works too. Why do you need something even stronger than Mounjaro? It works very quickly as it is.
“I believe I lost weight too quickly using Mounjaro because the skin around my stomach hasn’t tightened and looks saggy so I’ll need to have surgery to remove it.
“So imagine what could happen with a ‘Godzilla dose’, like you get with reta. You’re going to lose weight even more rapidly and risk a hell of a lot more loose skin.”
Minutes later she closed down her account and Rettanox’s website was taken down for ‘maintenance’ just hours after The Sun called them out.
The site sold pens featuring the brand name Alluvi, which was promoted by toned gym goers, often using the phrase “retta is betta” and offering slashed prices.
The company, which wasn’t listed on Companies House, the Government’s register of businesses, refused to speak to us.
But in a statement posted on their website, Alluvi claimed the press cared “less about consumer protection and more about preserving market exclusivity for a multinational pharmaceutical brand.”
The outcome is devastating. It’s heartbreaking and it’s really, really not worth it… I beg on my hands and knees, please don’t take them…. just please don’t
Ffion McGonigal
It claimed not to sell pens directly to customers, alleging it operated under an “exemption for research compounds” that meant they could manufacture the drug so long as it was stamped with the words ‘not for human or veterinary use’.
Alluvi claimed to have no TikTok presence and said it had reported social media users flogging the product. Despite that claim, The Sun found one account from a firm claiming to be them in September.
‘Destroying people’s lives’
City police detective chief inspector Emma Warbey, head of the force’s intellectual property crime unit, warned the public against buying retatrutide.
She noted that doing so risked people “giving their hard-earned money to criminals who don’t care what harm they might be causing” and that surrendering personal or banking information could “expose you to further fraud”.
Dr Helen Wall, a Bolton-based GP who has seen a big increase in people using jabs bought on social media, warned: “They could quite literally be injecting themselves with anything.
“There’s no guarantee what’s actually in the vial, how it’s been stored, or what dose they’re taking.”
She said doctors across the country are seeing “a worrying trend” of people using “self-injecting unregulated products, often with no clinical oversight and huge potential risks”.
Andy Morling, head of the criminal enforcement unit, at UK watchdog the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), reiterates the deadly risks.
He said: “Outside of authorised clinical trials, any products being sold in the UK that claim to contain it are likely to be illegal and potentially dangerous.
“Sourcing any medicine from unregulated suppliers significantly increases the risk of getting a product which is either falsified or not approved for use.
“Products purchased in this way will not meet the MHRA’s strict quality and safety standards and can expose patients to incorrect doses, or dangerous ingredients that can have serious health consequences.”
As for those like Ffion, who have lost a loved one to counterfeit weight loss injectables, she urges people not to take them and believes more needs to be done to clamp down on sellers.
“There’s so many people doing it, there’s so many people selling it,” she told ITV News. “These people are getting away with destroying people’s lives.
“The outcome is devastating. It’s heartbreaking and it’s really, really not worth it… I beg on my hands and knees, please don’t take them…. just please don’t.”
