China detains 54 in latest tainted drug scandal

Chinese state media say police have arrested nine people and detained 54 others in a crackdown on chromium-tainted gel capsules made from industrial waste.

The scandal is the latest to rock China's pharmaceutical industry, which suffers from abundant fakery and substandard ingredients.

The official Xinhua News Agency said late Sunday that police have seized 77 million gel capsules and shuttered 80 production lines.

The report said police also arrested a township official in northern China's Hebei province who allegedly ordered the torching of a gel capsule factory owned by his brother in an apparent attempt to evade the crackdown.

There have been no reports of illness of death so far from the tainted gel capsules.