f need. same with aladdin. the biggest in bail. no one has lower prices is faster or more professional. aladdin bail bonds. bigger because we're better. open their eyes. they have to realize the threat that's around us. tloo ruthless cartels, operating not in mexico, but in our own national forests. >> our family stumbles in there at harvest time -- >> suddenly you have five people dead. >> suddenly you have five people dead. >> an exclusive ride-along on a dangerous mission. >> then, remember this? our hidden cameras ebbing posed a drug epidemic. >> we have kids that have no idea what it is they're taking. >> the drug right there at your corner store. >> you tell people to snort this

stuff? >> yeah. >> now, big changes for a designer drug known as bath salts. also tonight, these women were poisoned by vitamins. >> eventually i couldn't even stand up. >> this is where my hair was pretty much gone. >> this was wrong. this is awful. >> how safe is your dietary supplement. we created one of oh our own and then added something extra. >> we spiked in both arsenic and lead.3 c1 >> would anybody catch us? would anybody stop us? >> these are all perfectly normal. >> so who tested your supplement? >> it's like the wild west. they do whatever they want. >> "dateline" goes undercover as we open the hanson files. captions paid for by nbc-universal television welcome to "dateline." i'm lester holt. chris hanson is back, and big news in a previous one. we begin with a surprising development in the war on drugs.

chris. >> lester, we all know that drugs flow in from mexico, but with crackdowns along the border, cartels have been looking for new ways of getting marijuana into the country. boy, have they found one. by invading some of our most pristine and precious land, the kind of place where your family might be planning to take a summer vacation. we got exclusive access to an unprecedented d.e.a. effort trying to stop it. >> we are on a dangerous mission with highly trained forces. we need to be quiet, because the men being hunted are members of a mexican drug cartel. they are armed and dangerous and could be anywhere. it's hot in these mountains. nearly 90 degrees. there are no trails up here. we've been hiking for miles

through dust and thorny brush. >> we're having to pick our way through terrain. >> what might surprise you about all of this is that although we're hunting the mexican cartel, we're not in mexico. we're right here in the united mexicano. no estamos en states in the state of utah in the shadow of zion national park. this federal agent thinks what's happening amounts to nothing less than an invasion of our country. >> it's probably the greatest threat facing our nation today. >> frank smith is an assistant special agent in charge for the drug enforcement administration. >> this is one of those times the american people have to open their eyes. they have to realize the threat that's around us. >> this is the threat smith is talking about. a drug war that has scarred mexico, currents in cities like this. and with billions of dollars in drug profits at stake, the violence has crept into the u.s.

>> the violence is spilling over into el paso. >> reporter: most of the cartels profits an estimated 60% comes from marijuana. now the cartels aren't just smuggling the drulgz drugs over the border anymore. they've actually moved their growing operations into the united states, and where are they planting growing and harvesting billions of dollars worth of marijuana? believe it or not, they're doing it in our national forests and on our public lands. >> i think it's fair to say that the average american will be shocked to realize that the cartels are actually growing marijuana here in the united states? not only should they be shocked. they should be appalled. >> the threat, he says, is very real and dangerous. even for a family who might happen to stumble across these men during a hike. >> if you have drug traffickers who are protecting multimillion-dollar crop and a family stumbles in there at harvest time -- >> suddenly you have five people dead. >> suddenly you have five people dead.

>> if this is going on in utah, where else is it going on? >> wisconsin, minnesota, michigan, georgia. it's going on throughout the country. >> this is some intel that we have on what we're doing today. >> smith and the d.e.a. are fighting back, and they gave "dateline" exclusive access to smith's team as it plans and executes raids on mexican cartel members operating within u.s. borders. >> if they're in there today, i think we have a good chance of getting them. >> smith has formed a dedicated team that searches for and destroys marijuana growers as they call them. they also want to arrest the cartel members tending the drugs. it's a complex operation not unlike what smith experienced himself fighting narco terrorism around the globe. >> how does that compare to this? >> you know, when i came to utah, i never thought i would have to use the skill sets that i used as a team leader in afghanistan, but the simple fact is that's exactly how we plan these operations. >> the two suspects that have been seen on the grow.

>> reporter: it's the night before a raid, and we're in a remote part of the state more than 300 miles from salt lake city. >> more than 100 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers -- >> walking forward, move until from the north. >> the watch word? stay vigilant. >> head on a swivel and pay attention when you are coming in. >> by sunrise the next morning, we're on the move. >> as if this isn't hard enough to pull off a raid of this magnitude, consider the sheer logistics of just getting to the location. we're on a dusty road driving through the mountains. it's 15 miles just to get to the staging location. once the road ends, we have to hike the rest of the way. it's hot. the terrain is unforgiving, and the marijuana grow is still miles away.

the closer we get, the quieter we need to be. >> about 300 meters away. we'll be at the grow site. >>. >> reporter: the cartel's men living in these hills aren't stupid. the d.e.a. know they have an observation point of their own. they think it's on the top of this hill, and agents need to be quiet as they make their approach. >> they're going to take them down. >> right there. right there. right there. i see one. >> right behind those trees. >> reporter: the question is will they be able to find them in this dense landscape with so many places to hide? >> the canyon will be a perfect way for the growers to escape. >> reporter: the chase is on. forces are brought in to help search for the cartel's men who are now on the run. and then a search chopper is sent in to try to track him. >> i got a camp back here to the

right, 6:00, 5:00. >> reporter: back on the ground, we arrive at the grow, and it's massive. there are thousands of marijuana plants flourishing like they've been nurtured in a greenhouse. this one location is worth millions. we found the drugs, but apparently the suspects just jumped off a ridge. >> they turned around and looked, and our guys were coming in to apprehend them, and then he jumps off. >> reporter: it appears they have slipped away and are hiding somewhere in these vast mountains. but the d.e.a. isn't giving up. there are marijuana fields and mexican cartel operatives all over utah and will be with the agents as they continued to hunt them down. >> we have one known subject, five other workers. >> reporter: coming up -- >> we can see what the bad guys are doing, but they can't see us. >> reporter: chasing more cartel members in another huge marijuana field. what will we find this time?

the hanson files continue. and an enhanced accident-response system standard in every chrysler 200. no one would know if we didn't. but we would have. and for us, the things you do when no one is looking are the things that define you. ♪ ♪

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>> we are caught up in the mountains of utah with d.e.a. agents as they hunt for mexican cartel praifshgz. they've already found thousands of plants at a so-called marijuana grow. >> right there. right there. right there. >> reporter: but the growers jumped down a steep embankment and disappeared into the landscape. now we've traveled about 100 miles away to another remote area of utah where the d.e.a. thinks there are more marijuana

fields on public land. we were driven for miles up another mountain. to a high cliff where across a canyon we see another large marijuana field. from here it looks like a finely manicured garden. >> this location makes the perfect platform for serving over the grow. >> reporter: sue thomas lets us know that we have done quiet. >> as long as we stay off the top of the ridgeline, we can see what the bad guys are doing down in the grow, but they can't see us. >> reporter: so are there any cartel members at this grow? we set up a long range camera, one that can focus more than a mile away, to record what was happening in the fields. we all need to stay camouflaged so, we covered our cameraman in a blanket of leaves to prevent the sun from reflecting off of the equipment. soon we spot them. we count six cartel members

sitting under a tree. d.e.a. agent frank smith describes what he is seeing. >> one guy is carrying a bunch of weed that he just harvested. >> reporter: some of the suspects are wearing camouflage to avoid detection. and this man is wearing a gun in his waist band. the agents don't move in and make arrests now. they want to see if other suspects show up, so they will wait the night and will try to take the suspects by surprise in the morning. >> we the sunrise coming up. >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: as the sun comes up, the agents get into position. >> it's about 5:30 in the morning, and more than 100 federal and local law enforcement officers are staging for the raid. >> teams one, two, and three. >> reporter: some of the agents climb into something they call a trojan horse, a nondescript trailer that will transport them closer to the grow site without being noticed. >> keep moving it in. >> reporter: other teams are already in the mountains surrounding the grow.

i'm with one of the teams led by special agent thomas. >> all the teams are in position, and our team will move in and form a wall, and we'll start pushing forward. >> reporter: we slowly begin the approach. >> how close we're into the grow site because you can actually smell marijuana. >> reporter: we arrive at the very edge of a huge grow. >> can you see one area of the grow field. very mature marijuana plants. >> reporter: but something is wrong. it's too quiet. there doesn't seem to be any movement, and that doesn't make frank smith happy. >> we'll go ahead and do another search of the area, see if we can find anyone. we still have the observation point, so they'll be able to see if there's movement. we still have the roads blocked off. >> reporter: there are signs people were here very recently. half eaten fresh food, clothing, and lots of garbage.

these guys clearly had to make a quick getaway. >> they've been here within the last, i would say, hour. we spotted somebody from our observation point earlier. they still have running water. >> reporter: and while they have not captured the suspects, the d.e.a. did seize the drugs. marijuana is everywhere. >> there is a drying rack right here then? >> they'll cut the weed. we were actually watching them do that yesterday. what they'll do is lay it on these racks, and they'll go ahead and dry it. once the buds dry, they'll go ahead and put it in large plastic bags and then they'll manually carry it out. >> so this is almost the finished product? >> that's correct. >> reporter: so how much would just these few hanging plants right next to us be worth on the street? >> you know, right here you're probably looking at $100,000 worth of buds. >> we were amazed at how resorriesful these drug gardeners really are. for irrigation they use tubing to divert water from nearby streams. there are miles of it. >> what they do, if you see this labouring black line that runs everywhere, it's what they call

a gravity feed. >> reporter: the d.e.a. showed us other grows and the camp sites all look the same. bunk beds? >> bunk beds and if you notice they've made the bunk beds out of the excess pipe that they run from the water source. >> forrish relegation? >> for irrigation. >> this is the kitchen. >> reporter: food is cooked with propane. >> hot peppers here. cooler. cell phone charger. >> reporter: and because these underlings need to be in touch touch with the cartel drug lords, cell phones must always stay charged. >> you can see the car batteries over there. that's how they charge their cell phones. >> reporter: and what about all that marijuana? none of it is left behind. law enforcement agents pull up every plant. it's back breaking work and can take hours to get it all. >> reporter: how does the d.e.a. know how many plants are in a camp like this?

it's hauled away by a chopper. chopper is coming in now. >> reporter: they bundle it and airlift it to a dumpster where it's been transported to a secret location and then buried, not burned. the cartel knows it's losing a lot of money today. >> dollar figure. somewhere between $20 million and $40 million. >> reporter: still, he isn't happy the suspects got away. >> it piss me off not to win. >> reporter: agent smith thinks the cartel members were on high alert because two weeks earlier his team arrested 38 of them in a grow run by the same cartel. still, they seemed so close. >> when you do a raid like this and the bad guys get away, is that a failure? >> you are not going to catch anybody. it's a percentage game. look, as much as i want to capture every one of those individuals and bring them to justice, these are labor intense. this is a war. it's a war that's going take

time, but we're going to win. >> reporter: coming up, last year we told you about a drug epidemic going on at your corner store. >> what do you do? snort them? >> yeah. >> reporter: tonight a big development for the dangerous drug with the innocent name. bath salts. >> reporter: and, later -- >> ooefrt we'll i couldn't even stand up. >> reporter: it was a medical mystery, and you won't believe what was making her so sick. >> this was wrong. is th is awful. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. my daughter's grabbing some yoplait. lemon burst, blackberry harvest,

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♪ now an update on another case from our files. new information on a designer drug we reported on last year. it's a drug with a nickname that made it sound harmless, but bath salts turned out to be dangerous, even deadly.

tonight a big development stemming from our hidden camera investigation. >> reporter: last spring we showed you on hidden camera how easy it was to purchase a dangerous new designer drug over-the-counter. >> $50. >> reporter: at this so-called head shop in new york city, we bought something called bath salts. this isn't the stuff you put in a bath. >> these are bath salts. >> reporter: inside these vials is a chemical called mdpv, a white powder first seen by law enforcement just three years ago. it was legal to sell because it didn't fall into any known category of controlled substances, as they're called by the drug enforcement administration, and even though the containers say not for human consumption, this clerk in new york readily admitted what you really do with them. >> so what do you do, you snort them, smoke them? >> yeah. >> reporter: bath salts can cause hallucination, extreme paranoia, and they've sent

thousands of people to emergency rooms acro the country. john moody knows the dangers all too well. his son, 29-year-old jared, bought them at this gas station near his missouri home. after a week-long binge on the drug, jared committed suicide. his father got to the hospital just in time to say good-bye. >> about ten minutes later his heart started to go, and in 15 minutes he was gone. >> reporter: what did the people selling bath salts have to say? i went back to that new york head shop. >> do you know how dangerous this stuff is? >> not -- it's bath salts. >> bath salts? what are bath salts used for? >> it's for the bath. >> for the bath? >> that's right. >> but you tell people to snort this stuff? >> hmm, yeah, possibly. some people do. >> possibly. >> some people do, yeah. >> nice to meet you, man. >> reporter: also on hidden

camera, we met andrew freeman of minneapolis, minnesota, who is manufacturing and distributing his own brand of bath salts called bliss. >> is this your union even brew? >> yeah. >> reporter: freeman thought he was meeting with a bow teshl investor, but he was really speaking with a "dateline" producer. >> how do you know what to prove it with? >> chemistry. i have been around for it long enough. >> reporter: a few weeks later we went back to see andrew, and this time i was there. >> how are you doing, man? >> good to see you. >> chris. >> reporter: we said we were there to purchase thousands of dollars worth of his bath salts. he assured me that if the government suddenly declared his formula illegal, he was already a step ahead of them. >> cat and mouse game. why am i going to release something? we already have it. >> is it dangerous in any way? >> soon andrew starts picking up on who i am. >> well, andrew, there's something you need to know. >> what? chris hansen. >> yes, with "dateline nbc." we're doing a hidden camera investigation.

>> i was under the impression this was you. i know that. >> you were under the impression that it was me? >> your voice, i could tell from a mile away. i don't appreciate you trying to entrap me. >> i just want to talk to you. >> i told you, it is for baths. >> reporter: what's happened as a result of our reporting? the same weekend our broadcast aired, new york state made the production and distribution of bath salts illegal and a few weeks later federal agents raided that head shop in new york city arresting its owner igor. earlier this week he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver misbranded drugs. >> it's a very high priority with the d.e.a. >> reporter: and last fall the d.e.a. also took action issuing an emergency order banning the ingredients in bath salts. we also spoke with andrew freeman who said he hasn't sold bath salts since our story aired and that he had nothing more to say. special agent gary bog says that the problem hasn't gone away. each time one chemical is

banned, creative drug dealers find a new one to replace it. >> our investigation helped initiate a crackdown at the federal and state level, but this is still a big problem. >> it absolutely is still a problem. these drugs are extremely dangerous. >> will you ever get this under control? >> we're doing the best that we can. one of the things that we really want to try to do is get education out to people and get them to understand that they just don't know what they're taking. >> reporter: coming up, why some dietary supplements may be dangerous to your health. >> somebody knew about it and riso somebody covered it up. >> reporter: "the hansen files" continue. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. call now for our free guide and tips on planning

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did you take a vitamin today, capsules? maybe you used one of those 3 c1 natural weight loss powders. then what you are about to hear may come as a bit of a surprise. because dietary supplements are supposed to be natural, they don't have to be approved in advance by the government like medicines do before they hit store shelves, and as we discovered, some supplements may not be as safe as they sound. >> it's a multivitamin, memory formula. >> you are under cover with dateline's hidden cameras inside one of the fastest growing businesses in america. >> this is for just overall brain health. >> reporter: dietary supplements being sold as medical miracles.

>> it reduces cholesterol. >> it will help build muscle. >> take care of your blood pressure. >> reporter: dietary supplements like these have exploded into a $28 billion industry. once mostly for bodybuilders, now supplements are used by soccer moms and millions of others. everything from fish oil to weight loss formulas, to vitamins, all on the promise of better health. with your health at stake, you may be surprised to learn that unlike medicines, the government doesn't approve supplements before they can end up on store shelves. manufacturers don't have to prove supplements are safe. the companies just have to put a list of ingredients on the label. >> it doesn't have to say it on the front, but by law they have to have it on the back. >> reporter: most companies are responsible, but what if we told you some lists of ingredients may not be worth the paper they're printed on? even worse, what if you discovered some supplements can

be more like poisons? >> we have show dogs. >> reporter: barbara king said she trusted the label on her supplement, and it was the start of a living nightmare. >> and i just progressively started feeling extreme fatigue. my hair started falling out. >> your hair started to fall out? >> my hair started to fall out. every time i would get out of the shower and look, it looked like a dog had been in there shedding. i called my daughter, and i said i have just started brushing my hair. i said my hair is going, carla. >> reporter: dotty didn't have any idea why her hair was falling out either. >> oh, this is where my hair was pretty much gone within ten days. >> ten days? >> two weeks. yes. >> i mean, that's stunning, dotty. >> reporter: in a matter of

weeks, she had gone from looking like this to this. her nails were falling off too. and for dozens of other people, those were just the first symptoms. people like wendy, an active young mother, until her joins got so sore she could barely walk. >> eventually i couldn't even stand up it was so painful to stand up. at first no one knew what was causing it. least of all the doctors. >> when the blood tests came back, he said we can't find anything. he said this is the most extensive blood test we can find. >> reporter: and still nothing? >> and still nothing. >> reporter: so what was making people so sick? >> come on. >> reporter: before barbara was struck by the mysterious illness, she started a new diet and a new liquid vitamin. could that be a clue? >> i just wanted a drug supplement because i was dieting, and i was afraid i wasn't getting everything i

needed, and the store clerk recommended that. >> reporter: that was a liquid vitamin supplement called total body formula. >> this is the actual product. >> this is the actual bottle? balance your body the way nature intended. >> right. >> reporter: the label had a detailed list of ingredients supposedly backed up by scientific testing. a reputable product, she thought, purchased from a reputable store, but when she went back to the gnc to buy more, she made a surprising discovery. >> i couldn't find it on the shelf. i asked the store clerk where is your total body formula, and he said, well, i doubt we'll ever have any more of that. >> what did he mean by that? >> well, it had been recalled. >> reporter: turns out instead of taking a liquid vitamin they thought would help them, they had been taking something toxic. >> what you find is an ingredient, a mineral, that is potentially deadly. >> reporter: mark zamora, one of

the lawyers suing on behalf of barbara king and other people who got sick, says it was an overdose of celinium. remember, the government doesn't approve supplements, but it can step in later if problems arise. apparently total body formula is just one of a host of problems. in the past year alone the government has issued dozens of warnings about supplements containing potentially deadly ingredients. >> these products can cause death, strokes, heart attacks. they're very dangerous. >> reporter: for example, says dr. sydney wolf, of the consumer advocacy group, public citizen, a dangerous ingredient has found its way into dozens of supplements. how do we know subutramine is dangerous? because it used to be in a prescription drug called mi imeridia because it was pulled off the

shelves because it cussed heart attack. everything from weight loss formulas to sexual enhancers. >> there have been an unending number of recalls including more even today as we speak. >> given the current system, can people trust what's on the label of a dietary supplement? >> in too many cases they can't. i think that the best dekripgs of a dietary supplement label is don't know in big red letters. >> reporter: we wondered how could what are supposed to be natural supplements make people so sick, and how on earth could they make it all the way to reputable stores? >> it's like the wild west. they do whatever they want. >> wild, wild west. >> you and i could open a supplement company in the back of a pickup truck. >> 25 milligrams of selenium. >> it might not be in the back of a pickup truck, but we're about to set up our own company and create poison supplements and ask labs to check them, all to find out just how wild things can get when it comes to

supplements. coming up, strange black specks show up in the poisoned total body formula. the fix is even stranger. >> we strained it out of it. >> tell them how you did that? >> we used nylon panty hose. >> when "dateline" continues. ourself at olive garden. choose from 6 items like the new calzone or half a flatbread, or a half panini. have it with unlimited soup or salad and get plenty of breadsticks. it's your lunch, your way, and it's just $6.95 at olive garden.

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zi didn't -- >> i didn't realize how bad it was.

>> people taking total body formula say that it caused more than their hair to fall out. >> so this wasn't just cosmetic. we're talking about heart problems. >> oh, yes. >> stage three kidney failure. >> that's right. stage five, the end of it wlsh. >> that's it. >> kidney failure. yeah. >> reporter: we wondered how did a supplement like total body formula end up on store shelves to begin with. to find out "dateline" started digging. the memos once marked confidential. turns out there were several companies involved. he we figured out that the problem began when a supplier was trying to prepare the correct amounts of key ingredients. for selenium, there was a mistake in the formula. it said ng for milligram, and it was supposed to be mcg for microgram. if it's been a while since you have been in science class, here's a reminder. this tiny dot represents a microgram. it would take 1,000 of these

dots to make one milligram. it was a frightening mistake, but it was the first in a whole series of errors. example? when another company was blending the selenium into the liquid vitamin drink, workers saw black specks, imagine ones like these floating around in the liquid. >> i want you to tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury -- >> reporter: listen to the plant manager under oath explaining what workers did to filter out the specks. >> we would strain the black specks out of it. >> tell them how you did that. >> we used nylon panty hose. >> reporter: you heard right. records show they stretched women's panty hose over five gallon buckets and poured the vitamin formula through them. >> somebody knew about it, and somebody covered it up, and somebody then sent the product on to us. >> reporter: and it got worse. that company that supplied the selenium was supposed to test the ingredients in a lab to make sure the mixture was accurate.

a worker at that company admitted in a video deposition that after people started getting sick, their supervisor realized there was way too much selenium. >> she sees that it is through the roof crazy. this is why people's hair is falling out. >> reporter: but instead of starting a recall, the supplier sent out this false certificate of analysis saying the amount of selenium was safe. right enrichment declined our request for an interview, but issued this statement saying the selenium mix was prepared to the exact specifications requested, but the statement doesn't explain why the company issued that false certificate apparently without testing the mixture in a lab. earlier this year the three companies involved in making total body formula settle lawsuits with dotty holbrook and others. they denied the product caused the most serious health effects, but admitted it made people's hair fall out.

so the question remains just how reliable are those labels you see on the back of supplements? frank jack says some labs fake tests and simply rubber stamp ingredients. >> a term that we use is the word dry lab. >> dry lab. what does that mean? >> that means the sample comes in, sample goes in the garbage can, never gets tested, and the report goes out. >> reporter: jacks runs a large testing company called chromodex. he is a defender of supplements because he knows there are plenty of honest supplement makers. in fact, some of them hire his company when they want to verify what's in their products. frank jacks says when he started double-checking results from other labs, he was finding so many mistakes he started to think some labs were just fancy fronts pretending to do testing. >> it appears that it's essentially a case of rubber stamping. >> is this a situation where dangerous products are getting on the market because of phony

test results? >> absolutely. >> could some labs really be faking those critical tests? to find out we set up our own supplement company, life root natural. and to give labs something to analyze, we create two supposedly all natural products. we're calling this white powder burn, our natural weight loss formula. >> we're going to close the door to get an accurate measurement. >> reporter: "dateline" asks experts in frank jacks' lab to deliberatery add two different poisons. selenium. that is what caused people's layer to fall out and subutramine, the dangerous diet drug recalled because it caused heart attacks. we also ask for kelp, and we add poisons to it too. >> we intiked in certain levels of both arsenic and lead. >> arsenic? that's what they use to put in rat poisoning. >> yeah. >> lead, also dangerous.

>> highly regulated, both of them. >> reporter: the poisons are carefully blended in. frank jack says there's no way a lab should miss that. so armed with our spiked samples, it's time to test one of the lab's industry sources told us may be rubber stamping ingredients. >> how are you? >> thank you. >> we're under cover. i'm pretending to be the president of life root naturals, our new supplement company. dr. dimesh patel runs a testing lab called atlas bio science. he gives us a tour of his lab and tells us how some companies even host his lab's certifications on-line to show they're doing things right. >> we have two products. life food naturals, kelp powder. we have another product called burn, a weight loss product. >> reporter: in effect, i'm hiring dr. patel to be part of

my team to help make sure my supplements are safe. >> our suppliers have put these together for us. they have also given us, obviously, their certificate of analysis, but i want your people to make sure that, in fact -- >> absolutely. >> -- you know, it is what it's supposed to be. is there -- >> reporter: the certificate i'm giving him has phony numbers, but i'm totally up front about everything i want his lab to test for. including that arsenic. >> we don't want to have levels of heavy metals. >> correct. in fact, we'll be looking for lead, arsenic, kad mee up, and mercury. >> reporter: will he find the poisons? >> we'll actually get these logged in today. >> reporter: or just rubber stamp the phony lab report we gave him? >> coming up -- >> these are all perfectly normal. >> it's way off. he is about 1,000 times too low. >> doctor, there's something i need to tell you. >> okay. 'm iis>>hrse canth hwi "dateline nbc." "the hansen files" continues. uh, i was just in the car. oh, the car. what's that on your collar? hmm? oh -- tie.es ] why do you seem

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we've started our own company, created our own product and intentionally spiked them with arsenic and other poisons, and now we're about to find out if a lab will certify they're safe to sell even when they're not. >> you have the samples. >> yeah. >> that's all i need for now. >> when the e-mail arrived with his results, there are some big surprises. >> i would like to show you the results. >> we take them back to the experts, which lab helped spike our samples with poisons. what about the arsenic we added to our kelp powder? frank jack says dr. patel missed it by a mile. >> is he about 1,000 times too low. >> 1,000 times too low? >> yes. they didn't find it. >> reporter: in fact, dr. patel missed all of our poisons. what's more, he certified some good ingredients that aren't

really there. >> dr. patel's lab, essentially, confirmed things that weren't there and did not recognize dangerous things that were there. >> that's exactly right. >> reporter: and it's beginning to look as if dr. patel virtually copied those phony reports we gave him. for example, arsenic. we spiked in 200 parts per million, but we wrote down 0.3. dr. patel's result? 0.26. off just enough from our fake number to look like a real test. >> so this number is almost identical to the number that we told him. >> the phony number we submitted. >> that's correct. >> this particular sample -- >> reporter: is it really possible that he could be so wildly wrong, or could we somehow be misreading dr. patel's report? to make absolutely sure, i arrange another meeting. he still thinks i'm just a

businessman, and he doesn't know we brought along our hidden cameras. >> come on in. >> reporter: first i ask about our green powder, the one we spiked with arsenic and lead. >> so this would be for the kelp extract powder. >> correct. >> reporter: but dr. patel assures me he didn't find anything unusual. >> absolutely. these are all perfectly normal. >> reporter: and it's the same story with our burn weight loss powder. the one we spiked with subutramine and selenium. dr. patel is saying our poisonous supplements are safe to sell. >> doctor, there's something i need to tell you. >> okay. >> it's time to tell dr. patel i'm not the businessman he thinks i am. >> and then as i'm chris hansen with "dateline nbc" and we're doing a story on how bad supplements can possibly end up in stores. >> yeah. >> reporter: as we pull out our regular cameras, i ask whether he is even doing the lab tests.

>> so the question is did you do the tests at all, or did you just come up with numbers that were close to the ones we wanted? you know what a dry lab is? >> of course well, do. >> is this a dry lab? >> no, not at all. we reject products as well. >> reporter: in this e-mail he blamed us for misleading him. when given misleading information regarding a sample's makeup, we would not be aware that the data being observed is being compromised due to matrix perimeters we are not cognizant towards. so were we. we met up with dr. patel one more time. >> we came in here to test you. >> correct. >> it appeared based on the first results, you failed the test. >> i agree. >> dr. patel now admits he got the wrong results, but he gives scientific reasons for why the numbers could be off. >> when we are looking at very small quantities, these values do deviate.

they deviate hugely. what i'm trying to get to is in a real world a shady businessman is not trying to contaminate a product with arsenic, cadmium or lead. >> other labs didn't seem to miss what we planted. we took our sample to the center for national center for natural products research, one of the premier labs. dr. kahn said his lab detected all of our poisons. >> in the kelp we found lead and arsenic. >> reporter: and were they hard to find? >> no. >> reporter: in fact, several other labs find our poisons too. one even warns us about high arsenic and high lead, saying our products deserve careful review before you decide to use them. but there was no warning like that from dr. patel. >> these are all perfectly normal. >> reporter: remember, he missed everything, and somehow, as if by magic, his wrong results were

virtually identical to the phony numbers we gave him. for arsenic, for lead, for sebutramine and even selenium, the thing that caused people's hair to fall out. the bottom line is dr. patel signed off on dangerous products we could have sold all across the country. we took our findings to the fda, the government agency responsible for supplements. >> we had poisons, including lead and arsenic that the lab didn't find. does that surprise you? >> for some labs, unfortunately, no. >> reporter: daniel is the new man in charge of regulating supplements at the food and drug administration. he is soft spoken, but serious, he says, about cracking down on contaminated supplements. if the government knows about the problem, you might think they have a program to inspect labs. think again. >> independent labs, are they ever inspected by the fda? >> at print present we're focussing on the manufacturers

and distributors. >> so no labs are currently being inspected? >> no. >> does that concern you? >> yes. >> in america the people who cut your hair have to be licensed, but not the labs that test the supplements you take. two major groups representing the supplement industry decline to do on camera interviews, but in a statement the council for responsible nutrition told us we take seriously the allegations of fraud lent laboratory practices raised by this report. and they urge the fda to use its ample legal hort to take legal action. the natural products association also said it supports government action against any laboratories that may use improper testing methods. both groups stress the vast majority of supplements are safe. and that brings us back to total body formula and the people who say they have been sickened by supplements that were never properly tested.

>> so to this day and forever going forward you are going to worry about damage to your liver. >> right. >> your kidneys? >> right. >> your heart? >> that's right. >> all because of a vitamin. >> i would never have believed it if i hadn't gone through it myself. >> leerz something else you might not believe. the fda says it only has 22 full-time people at its headquarters supervising the $28 billion supplement industry, lester. >> are there particular categories of these supplements that folks should be more concerned about? >> excellent question. the fda says the biggest problems its found with weight loss form los angeles, muscle building supplements and those supplements that are supposed to help you in the bedroom. >> if you are taking some of these supplements, how do you find out their status? >> the best thing it do is check the fda web sites and it lists supplements it finds as dangerous after they're on the market. you can find a link to the fda tips and a tip to buying safe supplements on datelinenbc.com. >> chris, thank you very much. that's all for this edition