Chinese man detained for selling 'Viagra liquor'

A Chinese businessman has been detained for adding a drug for treating erectile dysfunction to Chinese white liquor, or baijiu, in order to profit, local police said Sunday.

The suspect, surnamed Huang, an owner of a liquor factory from Jianshi County in central China's Hubei Province, bought a kilogram of sildenafil from a website in January and began to add it to baijiu at his factory starting in February, according to the Jianshi police.

Sildenafil is a major chemical component of medicines for treating impotence such as Viagra.

Huang paid 2,400 yuan ($390) for the sildenafil powder. He added 130 milligrams of sildenafil per 100 milliliters of liquor, producing 750 liters of the spirits in total, according to the police.

A total of 420 100-ml bottles of liquor were sold in the provincial capital city of Wuhan, and 750 bottles were sold in Jianshi County. Huang presented 810 bottles to his friends as gifts. The liquor sold for around 30 yuan per bottle.

Adding sildenafil to liquor is illegal and is likely to have strong side effects on patients with cardiovascular problems, according to the police.

The Jianshi County authorities are trying to retrieve the liquor from the market.