A MAN has been arrested in Partington on suspicion of selling unlicensed medicine and cultivating cannabis.

The 48-year-old was found at a residence on Hardwick Road today at around 11am with quantities of an unregistered drug called Triamazon, which the offender was allegedly selling online as a cure for cancer. Police also seized the man's computer hard drive and documents.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) teamed up with police in Sale and trading standards to target the unlawful selling of the drugs.

Speaking after the arrest Danny Lee-Frost, head of enforcement and intelligence at the MHRA, said: "People can be at considerable risk if they buy medication from illegal and unregistered websites.

"A medicine bought in this way has no guarentee of safety, quality and effectiveness.

"Today's visit demonstrates our commitment to safeguarding public health and acts as a stark warning to those in the UK who are engaged in any way with supplying medicines illegally.

"We will use all appropriate measures available to stop you, including prosecution and confiscation. The evidence today has shown that people go online hoping to buy a cure for cancer and it has actually been sold to them by a drug dealer in a council house in Manchester.

"We need to hammer home the message that not all online souces selling drugs are safe and educate the public too. If you go online on any unregistered site you don't know what you're buying."

MHRA are running extensive tests on Triamazon, which some websites claim is "100 per cent guaranteed to work" and "puts chemotherapy to shame", and said there is currently no proof that the drug can cure cancer.

Neighbourhood inspector for the Sale area, Brendan O'Brien, said: "There is no UK marketing authorisation for Triamazon. To sell this as a cure for cancer is to pray on people's vulnerabilities at a time when they will try anything to get better and that is despicable so we were happy to work with national enforcement organisations such as MHRA. So for us this has not been a bad result, it has been a good day."

The raid in Sale was one of six nationally for the MHRA's internet day of action, which aimed to crack down on people selling unregistered drugs online.

A spokesperson for MHRA said: "The message we want to put across is that you have to be very careful if you buy your medication online that it is licenced in the UK. If the medicine is unlicensed it means its safety and quality can't be guaranteed. Claims that it does work and can treat and cure cancer should not be made if that's the case."

The offender, whose house on Buxton Crescent in Sale was raided at about 7.30am, claimed Triamazon was herbal and was allegedly selling it for around £250 per course.

Mr Lee-Frost said: "He claims it's herbal but seeing as we don't know what's in it we have to test it for everything. Nothing herbal could cure cancer."