Wedged between an air-compressor service and an auto repair shop on a Northampton industrial estate is an undistinguished red-brick unit that was, until recently, the base for a major illegal weight-loss drug operation.
In late October, enforcement officers arrived here for a two-day raid, seizing thousands of unlicensed Alluvi-branded weight-loss pens, raw chemical ingredients, manufacturing equipment, packaging materials and £20,000 in cash. Some of the pens were labelled as containing retatrutide – a powerful GLP-1 agonist still in clinical trials, unapproved for medical use but widely hyped online as the next Mounjaro.
At the time, authorities described the haul as the world’s largest of its kind. Months on, however, no arrests have been made, and whoever ran the operation has yet to be publicly identified.
Alluvi’s website remains live; over the Christmas period, it claimed products were unavailable due to “huge demand”. Its Telegram channel is active, attracting thousands of members who appear to place orders daily. While the industrial estate site is now shuttered, there are rumours that production has shifted elsewhere.
A Guardian investigation has examined who may be behind the operation, uncovering evidence pointing towards links with a Northampton-based entrepreneur, Fasial Tariq, who has not been arrested or charged with an offence related to it. The Guardian has reviewed documents connecting him to businesses associated with the sale of Alluvi products, alongside testimony from sources familiar with the illicit weight-loss drug trade.
Fasial Tariq, seen here in a screenshot from a YouTube video, is alleged to be connected to businesses associated with the Alluvi operation. Photograph: YouTube
Local people identified the raided unit, though the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which led the operation, has not publicly confirmed its location. Northamptonshire police described the address only as part of an MHRA-led enforcement action and referred further questions to the regulator. Records show the unit is registered to Wholesale Supplements Limited. Fasial Tariq is listed as that company’s director. He did not provide a comment when approached for this article.
Photographs of customer orders reviewed by the Guardian suggest Alluvi products were sold through a website trading as Ecommerce Nutri Collectiv. The site later lost its payment provider after Stripe terminated its services. Companies House records show Ecommerce Nutri Collectiv Limited has previously shared a registered address with Vantage Commercials Group Limited, a company once run by Tariq.
Clicking the trading name at the bottom of the Nutri Collectiv website redirects to the site of another brand, Paradox Labs. Archived pages reveal it was previously known as Paradox Studio, a cryptocurrency venture founded by Tariq.
Paradox was no stranger to controversy. Its cryptocurrency project, Paradox Coin, and Paradox Metaverse, a play-to-earn blockchain game, claimed to let players earn crypto while playing – but attracted accusations of being a scam from online critics. The crypto investigator Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla, publicly challenged Tariq and his brother in a YouTube interview, questioning the project’s economics and promotional claims. Tariq denied marketing a get rich quick scheme.
The MHRA has not publicly confirmed the location of the Alluvi operation, but local people identified the Tenter Road unit on the industrial estate in Northampton. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
Back in Northampton, the industrial estate drew attention for reasons beyond the raid itself. Social media footage linked to Alluvi features a distinctive bright-green Lamborghini Huracán Spyder. Local people say luxury cars including a Rolls-Royce were frequently parked outside the raided unit. Tariq’s former company, Onyx, specialised in high-end car rental and chauffeur services.
Tariq himself has a history of driving offences. In 2018, a Ferrari travelling at more than 135mph on the M6 was overtaken by a BMW registered to his company Onyx Executive Travel Ltd. When Tariq failed to identify the BMW’s driver, he was fined £1,185 and later banned from driving for 12 months. He had only regained his licence days earlier after convictions for drink-driving and driving while disqualified.
One man, who asked to remain anonymous but has inside knowledge of the illegal weight-loss drug trade, described the sector as chaotic, secretive and poorly regulated. He characterised those behind Alluvi as “nasty”, saying they “made noise from day one” and drew attention to an underground supply chain.
“I know the printing company that makes the boxes [for Alluvi] in China,” he said. Orders, he claimed, could be placed easily. Products, he alleged, were assembled cheaply, with little concern for sterility or dosing accuracy. He noted that injectable pens, later filled with illicit weight-loss drugs, could be purchased easily from e-commerce websites.
The Alluvi case highlights a widening gap between enforcement and legislation as illegal weight-loss drugs surge in popularity. Regulators struggle to keep pace with new substances, social media-driven sales and fragmented online supply chains. Many products are sold as “research chemicals” or imported in quantities small enough to evade scrutiny, exploiting legal grey areas that allow suppliers to operate with relative impunity.
The MHRA said that they disregard claims that products are for “research purposes” if it is clear that such claims are being used to avoid medicines regulations. If there is evidence within the promotional material that the products are in fact unauthorised medicines intended for human use, the regulator said it will take appropriate action.
Academics warn that complaints-led regulation moves too slowly. “At present, it often feels that the worst that can happen is a slap on the wrist,” said Dr Piotr Ozieranski, a reader in sociology at the University of Bath. “Meanwhile, the public remains exposed to serious harm.”
Dr Emily Rickard, a research fellow at the University of Bath, said her research repeatedly uncovered breaches of advertising rules across online weight-loss services. “In early September, I reported what appeared to be an illegal website selling retatrutide to the British public after seeing a Facebook advert,” she said. “Facebook removed the advert quickly, but more than two months later the website is still live. That sets a deeply concerning precedent for patient safety.”
Ozieranski said regulators must abandon reactive enforcement. “They should proactively investigate suspected unethical practices and impose fines linked to company turnover,” he said. “Right now, the system feels as though it protects suppliers more than patients.”
Medical experts warn the risks are real. Retatrutide has not completed clinical trials, and unregulated injectable drugs may be contaminated, incorrectly dosed or improperly sterilised. Potential consequences include severe infections, pancreatitis, cardiovascular complications and dangerous blood-sugar fluctuations.
Even so, the MHRA does not appear ready to act against those involved in their raid, confirming that no arrests have been made in relation to Northampton. When asked about Tariq and any updates, the agency said they do not comment while investigations are ongoing.
sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
