More on Operation Liquid from Sweden ( including translation of the original Swedish news story ).

"Forty arrested in record breaking Swedish anti-doping operation".

Nearly 250 police officers across the country struck simultaneous at several places early morning in Sweden's biggest doping raids ever.

Several searches have been made and 40 persons have been arrested.

In most cases it concerns severe doping offenses, severe smuggling crimes and severe money laundry says Marina Amonsson, chief prosecutor at the International Office of the Prosecutor and investigator, and suggests that it is a criminal organization with international links they have busted.

What initiated this morning's raid, which involved 250 police officers all over Sweden, was a Customs seizure at the Arlanda airport in May of this year. During which Customs found a shipment of growth hormone addressed to a person in Sundsvall, North Sweden. Because of this the whole operation was handed over to a police station in the Northwest of Sweden, which led to this mornings raids.

Long planning.

After more than a half year of planning, investigation and intelligence gathering the police performed a country wide raid on Wednesday morning.

The police have done searches in Malmö, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Karlstad, Örebro, Eskilstuna, Umeå, Örnsköldsvik and Sollefteå.

Significant quantities.

40 people have been arrested in the raid. Nine men and four women of those arrested are in police custody in Karlstad. All are detained on suspicion of doping offenses.

They are suspected of having used the drugs for themselves and also for selling the preparation to others says Per Strom, head of communications at the police in Värmland.

He does not know exactly how large quantities of doping substances that have been seized, but says there are significant quantities that the involved have managed.

If you take a Dianabol for example, which is a tablet that contains 5 mg active substance, it takes 50.000 tablets for a seizure to be considered a severe doping crime, says Borje Ohman at the police in Northwest Sweden. Each of those now arrested have been caught with the equivalent amount or more, according to the information given by the police.

Many bodybuilders arrested.

In the homes of the arrested, the police seized money, documents and computers as well. Most of those arrested are bodybuilders.S ome are known for crimes previously. All aged 21-35 years. The raid was conducted by the police in Northwest Sweden in collaboration with several other county police agencies.

We have had very good cooperation with the concerned police authorities in the country and with the other authorities involved. It is what enabled us to perform this raid, says Thomas Nilsson.

Comment from Sparta ( our Sweidsh friend / translator ) :

The police and customs have let the discovered shipments pass through customs while observing and collecting evidence as the suspects sold, handled or stored the products, without interfering or seizing anything during more than 6 months, this is not the usual way of doing things in Sweden.

It is in my opinion a sign of increased aggression from the authorities.

Law enforcement's intention appears to be to discover and destroy the whole chain of movement of products from the country of manufacture all the way to the end user, causing large temporary damage to the concerned UG labs structures of operation.

The large number of arrests is proudly pointed out, this as a part of the “war on steroids”, convincing the opinion of voters that steroids is a huge problem and a big threat to society.

Boasting in the news ensures that there is a big budget allocated for the war next year. Of course this is taking place at the same time the use of far more dangerous substances is spreading and should have been their main priority, every cent used in the “war against steroids” is a cent that could have been used to fight a real problem.

The police and customs claim to have busted almost everyone involved but as usual that's not very likely to be true. I believe the lab will re-organize and continue operations in the not to distant future.