Bodybuilder jailed for supplying toxic DNP fat-burning pills

A gym owner has been jailed for more than three years for supplying potentially deadly fat-burning pills in a first for Scotland.

Jamie George, 32, ran a “significant manufacturing operation” from his garden shed, filling and selling up to 10,000 2,4-dinitrophenol capsules, commonly known as DNP, a month all over the world.

DNP is a highly toxic industrial chemical, used in the manufacture of explosives, insecticide and in photographic developing, Stirling sheriff court was told.

Bodybuilders use it for weight reduction, fat burning and body sculpture, as users experience a metabolism boost, leading to weight loss.

However, James Moncrieff, for the proseuction, said that taking the chemical puts users at high risk of kidney failure, liver failure, coma, convulsions and cardiac arrest.

Thirty-three people in