A testosterone gel developed by Scottish pharmaceutical firm ProStrakan has won approval in America.
Galashiels-based ProStrakan has teamed up with the US firm Endo Pharmaceuticals to sell Fortesta in the States.
Fortesta is used to treat men with low levels of testosterone, which is linked to osteoporosis and low libido.
The drug is already sold in the UK and Europe and it is estimated that US deal could be worth £60m annually.
The approval by the US food and drug administration has already triggered a payment of around £8m to ProStrakan from Endo.
Further "milestone" payments could take the total much higher if sales targets are achieved in America.
Meanwhile, ProStrakan said that it was still evaluating a number of offers for the company.
More info from the British press on the BuySteroidsInTheUK case.
Steroid smugglers who lived a champagne lifestyle funded by their massive illegal drugs racket have been jailed.
Patrick Hyland, 48, from Great Saling – the boss of the million-pound operation – was sent down for four-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to supply drugs.
His estranged wife Hyacinth, 56, of Little Waltham, described as the financial brains behind the operation, was sentenced to two years. She had denied conspiracy to supply drugs, conspiracy to acquire cash and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but was found guilty last month following a lengthy trial.
The pair used their illicit gains to finance a lavish way of life, with huge sums of cash splashed on luxury holidays, homes, boats and cars.
Judge Charles Gratwicke said Patrick Hyland, of Vicarage Close, was "a major player in the murky world of the supply of steroids" which stretched across Europe to the Czech Republic.
"This was clearly a well organised and professionally run enterprise and you were undoubtedly at the centre, it was you who sourced the drugs, who arranged for their importation, who paid for them. You were the controlling hand."
The illicit business involved the large scale importation of class C drugs such as nandrolone, testosterone and growth hormone.
It was uncovered during a police probe into the murder of steroid dealer Paul Duckenfield, 41, who was last seen at a restaurant near Braintree in September 2008, although no body has ever been found. An investigation into his death is ongoing.
The drugs were trafficked in huge quantities from the Czech Republic, hidden in children's Lego toys. Police in Prague provided officers here with transcripts of intercepted phone calls between a supplier there and Patrick Hyland.
In 2007, they had stopped two vans packed to the brim with steroids that were worth £500,000, one at Calais and the other on the Czech-German border.
Hyacinth Hyland had actively involved herself in crime, said the judge, although she didn't arrange for the drugs to be imported. "You were clearly someone who knows the ways of the world," he told her.
During her trial, the jury heard she bought her £850,000 home in Wheelers Hill with a £700,000 deposit.
She had 11 bank accounts and Patrick had 17.
Police uncovered "house brick-sized" bundles of cash, totalling £87,000 in safes in a Shalford outbuilding used by Patrick Hyland's company, along with "barrels of white tablets", and containers of Lego.
After the hearing Detective Inspector Martin Pasmore said: "It has taken two years of painstaking investigation to prove the extent of Patrick Hyland's involvement in this case. "Together with his estranged wife Hyacinth and other associates, he was responsible for the importation of millions of pounds worth of anabolic steroids drugs over many years.
"Patrick and Hyacinth Hyland lived lavish lifestyles, owning several properties both here and abroad. We will now work with our colleagues in the financial investigation unit with a view to recovering the money they made from their crimes under the Proceeds of Crime Act."
At least £2 million has been traced so far through bank accounts and in properties.
Patrick Hyland, 48, from Great Saling – the boss of the million-pound operation – was sent down for four-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to supply drugs.
His estranged wife Hyacinth, 56, of Little Waltham, described as the financial brains behind the operation, was sentenced to two years. She had denied conspiracy to supply drugs, conspiracy to acquire cash and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but was found guilty last month following a lengthy trial.
The pair used their illicit gains to finance a lavish way of life, with huge sums of cash splashed on luxury holidays, homes, boats and cars.
Judge Charles Gratwicke said Patrick Hyland, of Vicarage Close, was "a major player in the murky world of the supply of steroids" which stretched across Europe to the Czech Republic.
"This was clearly a well organised and professionally run enterprise and you were undoubtedly at the centre, it was you who sourced the drugs, who arranged for their importation, who paid for them. You were the controlling hand."
The illicit business involved the large scale importation of class C drugs such as nandrolone, testosterone and growth hormone.
It was uncovered during a police probe into the murder of steroid dealer Paul Duckenfield, 41, who was last seen at a restaurant near Braintree in September 2008, although no body has ever been found. An investigation into his death is ongoing.
The drugs were trafficked in huge quantities from the Czech Republic, hidden in children's Lego toys. Police in Prague provided officers here with transcripts of intercepted phone calls between a supplier there and Patrick Hyland.
In 2007, they had stopped two vans packed to the brim with steroids that were worth £500,000, one at Calais and the other on the Czech-German border.
Hyacinth Hyland had actively involved herself in crime, said the judge, although she didn't arrange for the drugs to be imported. "You were clearly someone who knows the ways of the world," he told her.
During her trial, the jury heard she bought her £850,000 home in Wheelers Hill with a £700,000 deposit.
She had 11 bank accounts and Patrick had 17.
Police uncovered "house brick-sized" bundles of cash, totalling £87,000 in safes in a Shalford outbuilding used by Patrick Hyland's company, along with "barrels of white tablets", and containers of Lego.
After the hearing Detective Inspector Martin Pasmore said: "It has taken two years of painstaking investigation to prove the extent of Patrick Hyland's involvement in this case. "Together with his estranged wife Hyacinth and other associates, he was responsible for the importation of millions of pounds worth of anabolic steroids drugs over many years.
"Patrick and Hyacinth Hyland lived lavish lifestyles, owning several properties both here and abroad. We will now work with our colleagues in the financial investigation unit with a view to recovering the money they made from their crimes under the Proceeds of Crime Act."
At least £2 million has been traced so far through bank accounts and in properties.
Prosecuters give up on Signature Pharmacy steroids case.
Federal prosecutors in Orlando have closed their several-year probe into Signature Pharmacy, the Central Florida business once pegged as a supplier of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes.
The pharmacy, which used to have offices in Orlando and Winter Park, made national headlines in 2007 when New York prosecutors painted the company as the hub of a steroid network.
Signature's offices were raided and its top officers arrested. But in 2008, a judge threw out the New York charges. A probe in Florida continued.
Earlier this year, federal prosecutors in Orlando asked a judge for permission to review evidence seized from the pharmacy's offices — which was earlier ordered sealed by an Orange County Circuit Court judge — in connection with a pending grand jury investigation.
A federal judge ended up quashing the grand jury subpoena and ordered the evidence be returned to Signature.
According to a court document filed Tuesday in Orlando, the federal prosecutor handling the case notified Signature's attorney Dec. 17 that the government "closed the matters previously pending against Signature Pharmacy" and its officers.
"My clients are relieved that the federal government has closed its multi-year investigation of Signature Pharmacy," Signature attorney Amy Tingley said Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
This summer, the New York prosecutor, District Attorney David Soares, again brought criminal charges against Signature's five operators.
But a judge dismissed those charges too, and said the criminal case couldn't proceed because of an ongoing lawsuit Signature filed against Soares in Orlando. The lawsuit, which accuses Soares of civil rights violations, creates of a conflict of interest in the criminal steroid case, the judge said.
New York prosecutors have appealed that decision.
Tingley, who has long fought the allegations and denies the company was a distribution channel for pro athletes, said her clients are confident the dismissal of the New York charges will be upheld.
"They look forward to rebuilding their lives and getting out from under the cloud of suspicion that has hung over them for nearly four years," she said.
The pharmacy, which used to have offices in Orlando and Winter Park, made national headlines in 2007 when New York prosecutors painted the company as the hub of a steroid network.
Signature's offices were raided and its top officers arrested. But in 2008, a judge threw out the New York charges. A probe in Florida continued.
Earlier this year, federal prosecutors in Orlando asked a judge for permission to review evidence seized from the pharmacy's offices — which was earlier ordered sealed by an Orange County Circuit Court judge — in connection with a pending grand jury investigation.
A federal judge ended up quashing the grand jury subpoena and ordered the evidence be returned to Signature.
According to a court document filed Tuesday in Orlando, the federal prosecutor handling the case notified Signature's attorney Dec. 17 that the government "closed the matters previously pending against Signature Pharmacy" and its officers.
"My clients are relieved that the federal government has closed its multi-year investigation of Signature Pharmacy," Signature attorney Amy Tingley said Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
This summer, the New York prosecutor, District Attorney David Soares, again brought criminal charges against Signature's five operators.
But a judge dismissed those charges too, and said the criminal case couldn't proceed because of an ongoing lawsuit Signature filed against Soares in Orlando. The lawsuit, which accuses Soares of civil rights violations, creates of a conflict of interest in the criminal steroid case, the judge said.
New York prosecutors have appealed that decision.
Tingley, who has long fought the allegations and denies the company was a distribution channel for pro athletes, said her clients are confident the dismissal of the New York charges will be upheld.
"They look forward to rebuilding their lives and getting out from under the cloud of suspicion that has hung over them for nearly four years," she said.
WWE wrestler Jeff Hardy plans to plead guilty.
Jeff Hardy, a professional wrestler from Cameron who was arrested last year on drug charges, plans to plead guilty in court next month, according to the Moore County district attorney.
Moore County deputies raided Hardy's home in September 2009 after Fayetteville police received a tip about drug use there.
Lawmen found about 262 doses of Vicodin, a prescription painkiller, 180 Soma prescription pills, 55 milliliters of anabolic steroids, a residual amount of powder cocaine and drug paraphernalia. He faces several drug charges.
Hardy, 33, is the current world champion of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on the Spike TV cable channel.
Moore County deputies raided Hardy's home in September 2009 after Fayetteville police received a tip about drug use there.
Lawmen found about 262 doses of Vicodin, a prescription painkiller, 180 Soma prescription pills, 55 milliliters of anabolic steroids, a residual amount of powder cocaine and drug paraphernalia. He faces several drug charges.
Hardy, 33, is the current world champion of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on the Spike TV cable channel.
Another steroid bust in Cyprus.
A Turkish man wanted in Australia on drug trafficking charges is believed to have been arrested in Cyprus.
Hakan Ayik could eventually be extradited to Australia or stand trial in the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Ankara.
Mr Ayik was reportedly arrested on December 20 at a hotel in the port of Kyrenia on the north coast of the eastern Mediterranean island.
Reports said police seized equipment used to make narcotics, steroids, a laptop and eight mobile phones in the suspect's hotel room.
A court in Kyrenia has remanded Mr Ayik, 32, in custody until a decision is taken on whether to extradite him or put him on trial on other charges.
Mr Ayik is wanted in Australia in connection with a major drug trafficking operation.
He fled the country in August and is the subject of an international arrest warrant.
Hakan Ayik could eventually be extradited to Australia or stand trial in the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Ankara.
Mr Ayik was reportedly arrested on December 20 at a hotel in the port of Kyrenia on the north coast of the eastern Mediterranean island.
Reports said police seized equipment used to make narcotics, steroids, a laptop and eight mobile phones in the suspect's hotel room.
A court in Kyrenia has remanded Mr Ayik, 32, in custody until a decision is taken on whether to extradite him or put him on trial on other charges.
Mr Ayik is wanted in Australia in connection with a major drug trafficking operation.
He fled the country in August and is the subject of an international arrest warrant.
British prison inmate's girlfriend given suspended sentence for smuggling steroids into prison.
A woman was caught as she attempted to smuggle drugs into Lincoln Prison hidden inside her bra, a court was told.
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz was pressured by her then boyfriend to supply him with steroids while he was serving a sentence at the Greetwell Road jail.
Phil Howes, prosecuting, said Paszkiewicz attracted attention from a sniffer dog when she arrived at the prison to visit him.
Mr Howes said: "The CCTV cameras monitored her movements and showed her removing two items and putting them in a crisp packet. She took a crisp and ate it herself before passing the packet to the inmate."
Two packages containing 50 tablets were found in the crisp packet and a further 50 tablets were found in her bra.
Mr Howes said the drugs had been sprayed with pepper in an attempt to put off the sniffer dogs.
Paszkiewicz, 25, of Henry Street, Lincoln, admitted possession of drugs with intent to supply on June 12. She was given a six-month jail sentence suspended for a year. Judge Sean Morris told her: "This was not heroin.
"They were steroid pills for your boyfriend and no-one else.
"You are a young mother of good character who happened upon the wrong man."
Michael Cranmer- Brown, defending, said Paszkiewicz was in an abusive relationship and feared she would be subjected to violence if she did not comply with the request for drugs.
He said the man was due to be released five days later and she genuinely felt in fear of him.
After completing his sentence the man was later extradited to Poland to face a burglary charge.
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz was pressured by her then boyfriend to supply him with steroids while he was serving a sentence at the Greetwell Road jail.
Phil Howes, prosecuting, said Paszkiewicz attracted attention from a sniffer dog when she arrived at the prison to visit him.
Mr Howes said: "The CCTV cameras monitored her movements and showed her removing two items and putting them in a crisp packet. She took a crisp and ate it herself before passing the packet to the inmate."
Two packages containing 50 tablets were found in the crisp packet and a further 50 tablets were found in her bra.
Mr Howes said the drugs had been sprayed with pepper in an attempt to put off the sniffer dogs.
Paszkiewicz, 25, of Henry Street, Lincoln, admitted possession of drugs with intent to supply on June 12. She was given a six-month jail sentence suspended for a year. Judge Sean Morris told her: "This was not heroin.
"They were steroid pills for your boyfriend and no-one else.
"You are a young mother of good character who happened upon the wrong man."
Michael Cranmer- Brown, defending, said Paszkiewicz was in an abusive relationship and feared she would be subjected to violence if she did not comply with the request for drugs.
He said the man was due to be released five days later and she genuinely felt in fear of him.
After completing his sentence the man was later extradited to Poland to face a burglary charge.
BuySteroidsInTheUK website owners sentenced.
A man from South Derbyshire has received a nine-month suspended prison sentence for his role in a £1 million illegal steroid empire.
Stephen Griffin, 51, of Russell Street, Swadlincote, who was recruited to receive 18 parcels at his home, got nine months, suspended for two years, with 150 hours unpaid work and two years supervision at Essex Crown Court yesterday.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class C drugs and two unrelated offences relating to possession of ammunition without a firearms certificate.
Griffin has previous convictions for dishonesty.
He was recruited by Colin Lathbury, 55, formerly from Burton but now of Ballachrik Farmhouse, Jurby East, on the Isle of Man, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class C drugs.
He got two-and-a-half years for his significant role in arranging outlets through his contacts in the gym community, organising sales and collecting money.
Lathbury had previous convictions for conspiracy to sell medical products without a licence in 1995.
Judge Charles Gratwicke told Lathbury he entered into the conspiracy “with gusto”. He organised outlets, collected money and set prices.
Griffin, said the judge, was a simple man who had been used by others.
Boss of the operation, Patrick Hyland, 48, of Great Saling, near Braintree, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class C drugs.
His estranged-wife, Hyacinth, of Little Waltham, had been described as the brains behind the business and received a two year sentence.
The illicit business which involved large scale importation of class C drugs such as nandrolone, testosterone and growth hormone was uncovered during a police probe into the suspected murder of steroid dealer Paul Duckenfield.
The drugs were sourced from the Czech Republic in huge quantities and Essex Police were tipped off by the Czech authorities who were intercepting phone calls and emails between a supplier there and Patrick Hyland from July, 2007, to October, 2008,.
Two vans filled with steroids worth £500,000, were intercepted by Prague police, at Calais and on the Czech-German border in September and October 2007.
Press release from Essex Police :
Three jailed for major anabolic steroids importation.
Three people have been sent to prison for their part in major drug importation involving anabolic steroids.
Patrick Hyland, 48, of Gt Sailing, his estranged wife Hyacinth Hyland, 56, of Little Waltham and Colin Lathbury, 55, from the Isle of Man were jailed on December 23, 2010.
Patrick Hyland pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was jailed for four and a half years.
Hyacinth Hyland was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class C drugs, perverting the course of justice and money laundering and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Colin Lathbury pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was jailed for two and a half years.
Detective Inspector Martin Pasmore of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: “It has taken two years of painstaking investigation to prove the extent of Patrick Hyland’s involvement in this case. Together with his estranged wife Hyacinth and other associates, he was responsible for the importation of millions of pounds worth of anabolic steroids drugs over many years.
“We worked in full cooperation with our police colleagues in the Czech Republic who provided vital evidence of intercepted telephone calls between Patrick Hyland and an associate in Prague. These men arranged the production and delivery of steroids into the U.K.
“I am very grateful to my team, the Czech Police, Crown Prosecution Service and prosecution counsel for all their hard work and long hours putting this case together.
“Patrick and Hyacinth Hyland lived lavish lifestyles, owning several properties both here and abroad. We will now work with our colleagues in the financial investigation unit with a view to recovering the money they made from their crimes under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Three of the trio's associates received suspended sentences.
Sanjay Mistry, 43, of Northolt, Middlesex, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was given 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years, 250 hours of unpaid work and a two year supervision order.
Michael Cork, 72, of Shalford, Braintree, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and received 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years and a two year supervision order.
Stephen Griffin, 51, of Swadlincote, Derbyshire peaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and possession of ammunition (unrelated to this case). He received nine months imprisonment suspended for two years for the drug supply,six months imprisonment suspended for two years for ammunition, 150 hours unpaid work and a two year supervision order.
Det Insp Martin Pasmore added: “It is important to remember that this investigation has run in parallel with the investigation into the disappearance of Paul Duckenfield who went missing around September 16, 2008 after flying into Stansted Airport from Portugal.
"I believe more than ever that Mr Duckenfield was murdered and that his murder was connected to his involvement with the supply of steroids.
Stephen Griffin, 51, of Russell Street, Swadlincote, who was recruited to receive 18 parcels at his home, got nine months, suspended for two years, with 150 hours unpaid work and two years supervision at Essex Crown Court yesterday.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class C drugs and two unrelated offences relating to possession of ammunition without a firearms certificate.
Griffin has previous convictions for dishonesty.
He was recruited by Colin Lathbury, 55, formerly from Burton but now of Ballachrik Farmhouse, Jurby East, on the Isle of Man, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class C drugs.
He got two-and-a-half years for his significant role in arranging outlets through his contacts in the gym community, organising sales and collecting money.
Lathbury had previous convictions for conspiracy to sell medical products without a licence in 1995.
Judge Charles Gratwicke told Lathbury he entered into the conspiracy “with gusto”. He organised outlets, collected money and set prices.
Griffin, said the judge, was a simple man who had been used by others.
Boss of the operation, Patrick Hyland, 48, of Great Saling, near Braintree, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class C drugs.
His estranged-wife, Hyacinth, of Little Waltham, had been described as the brains behind the business and received a two year sentence.
The illicit business which involved large scale importation of class C drugs such as nandrolone, testosterone and growth hormone was uncovered during a police probe into the suspected murder of steroid dealer Paul Duckenfield.
The drugs were sourced from the Czech Republic in huge quantities and Essex Police were tipped off by the Czech authorities who were intercepting phone calls and emails between a supplier there and Patrick Hyland from July, 2007, to October, 2008,.
Two vans filled with steroids worth £500,000, were intercepted by Prague police, at Calais and on the Czech-German border in September and October 2007.
Press release from Essex Police :
Three jailed for major anabolic steroids importation.
Three people have been sent to prison for their part in major drug importation involving anabolic steroids.
Patrick Hyland, 48, of Gt Sailing, his estranged wife Hyacinth Hyland, 56, of Little Waltham and Colin Lathbury, 55, from the Isle of Man were jailed on December 23, 2010.
Patrick Hyland pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was jailed for four and a half years.
Hyacinth Hyland was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class C drugs, perverting the course of justice and money laundering and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Colin Lathbury pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was jailed for two and a half years.
Detective Inspector Martin Pasmore of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: “It has taken two years of painstaking investigation to prove the extent of Patrick Hyland’s involvement in this case. Together with his estranged wife Hyacinth and other associates, he was responsible for the importation of millions of pounds worth of anabolic steroids drugs over many years.
“We worked in full cooperation with our police colleagues in the Czech Republic who provided vital evidence of intercepted telephone calls between Patrick Hyland and an associate in Prague. These men arranged the production and delivery of steroids into the U.K.
“I am very grateful to my team, the Czech Police, Crown Prosecution Service and prosecution counsel for all their hard work and long hours putting this case together.
“Patrick and Hyacinth Hyland lived lavish lifestyles, owning several properties both here and abroad. We will now work with our colleagues in the financial investigation unit with a view to recovering the money they made from their crimes under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Three of the trio's associates received suspended sentences.
Sanjay Mistry, 43, of Northolt, Middlesex, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was given 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years, 250 hours of unpaid work and a two year supervision order.
Michael Cork, 72, of Shalford, Braintree, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and received 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years and a two year supervision order.
Stephen Griffin, 51, of Swadlincote, Derbyshire peaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and possession of ammunition (unrelated to this case). He received nine months imprisonment suspended for two years for the drug supply,six months imprisonment suspended for two years for ammunition, 150 hours unpaid work and a two year supervision order.
Det Insp Martin Pasmore added: “It is important to remember that this investigation has run in parallel with the investigation into the disappearance of Paul Duckenfield who went missing around September 16, 2008 after flying into Stansted Airport from Portugal.
"I believe more than ever that Mr Duckenfield was murdered and that his murder was connected to his involvement with the supply of steroids.
Magazine for Policemen contains ads for anabolic steroid providers.
Police officers in New Jersey don’t have to look very hard to find a source of anabolic steroids. It’s all right there in the pages of a magazine written just for law enforcement.
"We’ve found the fountain of youth!" shouts an advertisement in the December issue of New Jersey COPS, a publication read by officers across the state. "Would you like to be able to lose fat, gain muscle, recover faster from physical activity, and possess the sex drive you had in your twenties?"
The full-page ad, one of two hawking hormone replacement therapy, features the image of a shirtless man with thunderous biceps, a sculpted chest and fist-size abs that bulge through bronzed skin.
As an added incentive, a text label proclaims, "Special Discount for Law Enforcement."
The phone number leads to an answering machine without a message. The address, on Route 10 in Whippany, leads to the Fountain of Youth Anti-Aging Center and Signature Health and Wellness Center, two distinct but affiliated firms that share a small office connected to a gym.
There you’ll find Tom Boorujy, a licensed chiropractor and Signature’s owner, who explains why it was a simple decision to place an ad in a magazine for law enforcement officers.
"From what we heard, there were a lot of cops doing it, so we thought, ‘Let’s market it to that demographic,’" Boorujy said.
Strong at Any Cost
Boorujy said the clinic indefinitely suspended the hormone aspect of the business and stopped advertising last week, after a series of Star-Ledger reports on the use of anabolic steroids by law enforcement officers and firefighters. The anti-aging clinic’s founder, Michael Villani, declined to discuss the operation.
"We are closed because of the fact the article came out," Boorujy said. "There’s scrutiny."
That scrutiny has come from lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature and from state Attorney General Paula Dow, who impaneled a task force to investigate the extent of steroid use in law enforcement and the role of doctors who liberally prescribe the drugs. The committee also will examine the possibility of adding anabolic steroids to the list of substances for which law enforcement officers are randomly tested.
Separately, several police departments have launched internal investigations based on The Star-Ledger reports.
The newspaper found at least 248 officers and firefighters from 53 agencies obtained anabolic steroids and other hormones through a Jersey City doctor, Joseph Colao, who often faked diagnoses and illegally sold growth hormone on the side. Colao has since died, but The Star-Ledger found many of his patients continued their treatments with other anti-aging doctors.
The officers and firefighters paid for the prescriptions with their taxpayer-funded health benefits in most, if not all, cases, running up a bill in the millions of dollars, the newspaper found.
In his Whippany clinic, Boorujy said he’s done nothing wrong, noting that in the few weeks the anti-aging center was in operation, clients paid out of their own pockets, not with insurance. And he said he didn’t prescribe steroids or other hormones himself.
That was left to a gastroenterologist, Alfred Helwig III, the Fountain of Youth’s medical supervisor.
Helwig, who has a medical office in Millburn, called the clinic an "above-board" facility and said he doesn’t prescribe drugs without physical exams and bloodwork.
He said he also refuses to prescribe human growth hormone, which is tightly restricted, or notorious body-building drugs such as stanozolol and nandrolone, often sold under the brand name Deca-Durabolin. The physician said he will recommend testosterone creams if blood levels show a deficiency.
"This is cosmetic," Helwig said. "All women have breasts, but some want bigger ones. This is elective. This is like joining a gym."
Asked if there was a risk in treating police officers with a drug that has been linked, in some cases, to increased aggression and recklessness, Helwig responded, "Postal workers can go postal, too. I wouldn’t make any assumptions."
He said he expects the center to remain on hold while the state investigates.
"It’s prudent to see if any new laws are going to be passed," Helwig said.
A more established clinic advertising in New Jersey COPS magazine goes by the name Global Life Extension. Affiliated with Denville Medical & Sports Rehabilitation Center on Route 53 in Denville, Global Life has been in operation for several years.
Global Life’s ad, showing a chiseled man and a lean, toned woman, calls hormone replacement one of the "essentials" — along with exercise and proper nutrition — for "optimal health and longevity." The ad contends testosterone and human growth hormone can help reverse aging-related damage to the body.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejects such claims, noting on its website that testosterone and growth hormone are not approved for anti-aging medicine or athletic enhancement.
Global Life’s ad also says "many" adults over 35 experience the symptoms of adult growth hormone deficiency. According to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, adult growth hormone deficiency legitimately affects one in 100,000 people annually.
A woman who answered the phone at Global Life Extension declined to comment, and requests to speak to a doctor at Denville Medical were denied.
Global Life’s website carries an extensive disclaimer stating hormone treatment will not be provided unless a "clinical need" exists.
"Our doctors will not prescribe for anti-aging, body building, or performance enhancement of any kind," the disclaimer says, adding that the clinic’s physicians also won’t treat anyone under 30.
New Jersey COPS publisher Mitch Krugel said he take no issue with the advertisers, noting a printed disclaimer states the magazine doesn’t endorse any products or claims made in ads. "As long as it’s not illegal," Krugel said.
The magazine, with a circulation of 52,000, reaches most officers in New Jersey, Krugel said. About half of its circulation comes through paid subscriptions. Bundles also are distributed to police departments, where officers may take copies for free.
Krugel confirmed the Fountain of Youth Anti-Aging Center canceled future ads. The center’s first spot ran in the November issue, he said.
Though Krugel doesn’t have a problem with them, the ads don’t sit well with Anthony Wieners, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, which represents about 33,000 law enforcement officers across the state.
"I think we should look at how we’re being marketed," Wieners said. "We have to go to the root of the problem."
"We’ve found the fountain of youth!" shouts an advertisement in the December issue of New Jersey COPS, a publication read by officers across the state. "Would you like to be able to lose fat, gain muscle, recover faster from physical activity, and possess the sex drive you had in your twenties?"
The full-page ad, one of two hawking hormone replacement therapy, features the image of a shirtless man with thunderous biceps, a sculpted chest and fist-size abs that bulge through bronzed skin.
As an added incentive, a text label proclaims, "Special Discount for Law Enforcement."
The phone number leads to an answering machine without a message. The address, on Route 10 in Whippany, leads to the Fountain of Youth Anti-Aging Center and Signature Health and Wellness Center, two distinct but affiliated firms that share a small office connected to a gym.
There you’ll find Tom Boorujy, a licensed chiropractor and Signature’s owner, who explains why it was a simple decision to place an ad in a magazine for law enforcement officers.
"From what we heard, there were a lot of cops doing it, so we thought, ‘Let’s market it to that demographic,’" Boorujy said.
Strong at Any Cost
Boorujy said the clinic indefinitely suspended the hormone aspect of the business and stopped advertising last week, after a series of Star-Ledger reports on the use of anabolic steroids by law enforcement officers and firefighters. The anti-aging clinic’s founder, Michael Villani, declined to discuss the operation.
"We are closed because of the fact the article came out," Boorujy said. "There’s scrutiny."
That scrutiny has come from lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature and from state Attorney General Paula Dow, who impaneled a task force to investigate the extent of steroid use in law enforcement and the role of doctors who liberally prescribe the drugs. The committee also will examine the possibility of adding anabolic steroids to the list of substances for which law enforcement officers are randomly tested.
Separately, several police departments have launched internal investigations based on The Star-Ledger reports.
The newspaper found at least 248 officers and firefighters from 53 agencies obtained anabolic steroids and other hormones through a Jersey City doctor, Joseph Colao, who often faked diagnoses and illegally sold growth hormone on the side. Colao has since died, but The Star-Ledger found many of his patients continued their treatments with other anti-aging doctors.
The officers and firefighters paid for the prescriptions with their taxpayer-funded health benefits in most, if not all, cases, running up a bill in the millions of dollars, the newspaper found.
In his Whippany clinic, Boorujy said he’s done nothing wrong, noting that in the few weeks the anti-aging center was in operation, clients paid out of their own pockets, not with insurance. And he said he didn’t prescribe steroids or other hormones himself.
That was left to a gastroenterologist, Alfred Helwig III, the Fountain of Youth’s medical supervisor.
Helwig, who has a medical office in Millburn, called the clinic an "above-board" facility and said he doesn’t prescribe drugs without physical exams and bloodwork.
He said he also refuses to prescribe human growth hormone, which is tightly restricted, or notorious body-building drugs such as stanozolol and nandrolone, often sold under the brand name Deca-Durabolin. The physician said he will recommend testosterone creams if blood levels show a deficiency.
"This is cosmetic," Helwig said. "All women have breasts, but some want bigger ones. This is elective. This is like joining a gym."
Asked if there was a risk in treating police officers with a drug that has been linked, in some cases, to increased aggression and recklessness, Helwig responded, "Postal workers can go postal, too. I wouldn’t make any assumptions."
He said he expects the center to remain on hold while the state investigates.
"It’s prudent to see if any new laws are going to be passed," Helwig said.
A more established clinic advertising in New Jersey COPS magazine goes by the name Global Life Extension. Affiliated with Denville Medical & Sports Rehabilitation Center on Route 53 in Denville, Global Life has been in operation for several years.
Global Life’s ad, showing a chiseled man and a lean, toned woman, calls hormone replacement one of the "essentials" — along with exercise and proper nutrition — for "optimal health and longevity." The ad contends testosterone and human growth hormone can help reverse aging-related damage to the body.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejects such claims, noting on its website that testosterone and growth hormone are not approved for anti-aging medicine or athletic enhancement.
Global Life’s ad also says "many" adults over 35 experience the symptoms of adult growth hormone deficiency. According to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, adult growth hormone deficiency legitimately affects one in 100,000 people annually.
A woman who answered the phone at Global Life Extension declined to comment, and requests to speak to a doctor at Denville Medical were denied.
Global Life’s website carries an extensive disclaimer stating hormone treatment will not be provided unless a "clinical need" exists.
"Our doctors will not prescribe for anti-aging, body building, or performance enhancement of any kind," the disclaimer says, adding that the clinic’s physicians also won’t treat anyone under 30.
New Jersey COPS publisher Mitch Krugel said he take no issue with the advertisers, noting a printed disclaimer states the magazine doesn’t endorse any products or claims made in ads. "As long as it’s not illegal," Krugel said.
The magazine, with a circulation of 52,000, reaches most officers in New Jersey, Krugel said. About half of its circulation comes through paid subscriptions. Bundles also are distributed to police departments, where officers may take copies for free.
Krugel confirmed the Fountain of Youth Anti-Aging Center canceled future ads. The center’s first spot ran in the November issue, he said.
Though Krugel doesn’t have a problem with them, the ads don’t sit well with Anthony Wieners, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, which represents about 33,000 law enforcement officers across the state.
"I think we should look at how we’re being marketed," Wieners said. "We have to go to the root of the problem."
FDA getting closer to approving Testosterone booster Androxal (Enclomiphene Citrate)
Repros Therapeutics Inc today announced it has submitted to the FDA data collected from three different studies which the Company believes demonstrates that the assessment of testosterone levels between 8 and 10 in the morning is indicative of the maximum and average levels of the male hormone achieved during a particular day following the administration of Androxal®. In the Type B meeting held on November 8, 2010, and reported in the Company’s press release of November 9, 2010, the FDA stated the preferred method to determine testosterone levels in treatments designed to replace the hormone is a 24 hour assessment.
Repros used the services of an outside statistician, Dr. Richard Trout, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, in arriving at the conclusions it has reached.
The Company has conducted three trials in which serial testosterone measurements were made over a 24 hour period. Two of the studies assessed 14 (ZA-002) and 11 (ZA-003 subset) time points over the 24 hour period in a total of 28 subjects. A third study (ZN-018) obtained measurements at six points in a total of 20 subjects.
Using the data from the 002 and 003 studies the sponsor has determined that a single total testosterone assessment made between 8 and 10 in the morning correlates to the average of the values of the testosterone measurements for a given subject on a given day (correlation coefficient roughly 0.9 for the times 8, 9 and 10, p value < 0.001).
Performing the same assessment for the maximum value of total testosterone recorded in a 24 hour period, the same single total testosterone assessment made between 8 and 10 in the morning correlates to the maximum value of testosterone for a given subject on a given day (correlation coefficient roughly 0.9 for the times 8, 9 and 10, p value < 0.001).
From the 018 study that assessed men at baseline and after 14 days of treatment, the Company observed that Androxal raises each time point testosterone level by an average of 200 ng/dl at 12.5 mg and 260 ng/dl at a 25 mg dose.
Unlike topical testosterone preparations, Androxal maintains the normal daily rhythm of testicular testosterone production with peak levels generally occurring in the morning and trough levels exhibited in the evening. The testosterone levels achieved by the administration of topical preparations are a function of a variety of factors none of which relate to the normal daily rhythm. In some instances, subject to subject variability can lead to supernormal levels of testosterone several hours after administration of the topical preparations. The Company has committed to conduct one additional 24 hour study to show that Androxal’s action in maintaining the normal rhythm is both predictable and dose dependent.
Repros used the services of an outside statistician, Dr. Richard Trout, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, in arriving at the conclusions it has reached.
The Company has conducted three trials in which serial testosterone measurements were made over a 24 hour period. Two of the studies assessed 14 (ZA-002) and 11 (ZA-003 subset) time points over the 24 hour period in a total of 28 subjects. A third study (ZN-018) obtained measurements at six points in a total of 20 subjects.
Using the data from the 002 and 003 studies the sponsor has determined that a single total testosterone assessment made between 8 and 10 in the morning correlates to the average of the values of the testosterone measurements for a given subject on a given day (correlation coefficient roughly 0.9 for the times 8, 9 and 10, p value < 0.001).
Performing the same assessment for the maximum value of total testosterone recorded in a 24 hour period, the same single total testosterone assessment made between 8 and 10 in the morning correlates to the maximum value of testosterone for a given subject on a given day (correlation coefficient roughly 0.9 for the times 8, 9 and 10, p value < 0.001).
From the 018 study that assessed men at baseline and after 14 days of treatment, the Company observed that Androxal raises each time point testosterone level by an average of 200 ng/dl at 12.5 mg and 260 ng/dl at a 25 mg dose.
Unlike topical testosterone preparations, Androxal maintains the normal daily rhythm of testicular testosterone production with peak levels generally occurring in the morning and trough levels exhibited in the evening. The testosterone levels achieved by the administration of topical preparations are a function of a variety of factors none of which relate to the normal daily rhythm. In some instances, subject to subject variability can lead to supernormal levels of testosterone several hours after administration of the topical preparations. The Company has committed to conduct one additional 24 hour study to show that Androxal’s action in maintaining the normal rhythm is both predictable and dose dependent.
Domestic remailer of fake Valium gets controlled delivery in Naperville.
Bond has been set at $30,000 for a Naperville man found in possession of thousands of counterfeit Valium pills, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office announced Monday.
Amin Rupani, 40, of the 2600 block of Salix Circle in Naperville, has been charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a release from the sheriff’s office said. He was arrested at his computer business, Precision Technologies, which is on the 1500 block of Midway Court in Elk Grove Village.
The Sheriff’s Police Special Operations Unit began its investigation into Rupani’s activities after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, detained a package containing counterfeit Valium pills. The 20,000 pills packed inside plastic containers had Rupani’s business address, but a fake name.
On Dec. 9, sheriff’s office investigators, along with agents from the FDA and the U.S. Postal Service, wired the Valium package with a monitoring and tracking device and conducted a controlled delivery to Rupani’s office. When officers received a radio transmission signal that the package had been opened, they entered the business and placed Rupani under arrest.
Rupani told investigators he received the packages from a friend who lives in Karachi, Pakistan, and that he was told the pills were vitamins and weight loss drugs. Forensic tests of the seized pills show they contain the active ingredient in Valium, but they were manufactured by a criminal enterprise in China. The estimated street value of the drugs is $200,000.
Rupani admitted he forwarded the packages sent by his co-conspirator to addresses in Texas and California on a regular basis, using his company’s UPS account. After a search of Rupani’s business, officers also recovered nine plastic bags containing an estimated 20,000 light green triangular pills, suspected counterfeit Xanax, and a box of diet pills.
Amin Rupani’s next court date is set for February 3, 2011 at the Rolling Meadows courthouse.
Amin Rupani, 40, of the 2600 block of Salix Circle in Naperville, has been charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a release from the sheriff’s office said. He was arrested at his computer business, Precision Technologies, which is on the 1500 block of Midway Court in Elk Grove Village.
The Sheriff’s Police Special Operations Unit began its investigation into Rupani’s activities after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, detained a package containing counterfeit Valium pills. The 20,000 pills packed inside plastic containers had Rupani’s business address, but a fake name.
On Dec. 9, sheriff’s office investigators, along with agents from the FDA and the U.S. Postal Service, wired the Valium package with a monitoring and tracking device and conducted a controlled delivery to Rupani’s office. When officers received a radio transmission signal that the package had been opened, they entered the business and placed Rupani under arrest.
Rupani told investigators he received the packages from a friend who lives in Karachi, Pakistan, and that he was told the pills were vitamins and weight loss drugs. Forensic tests of the seized pills show they contain the active ingredient in Valium, but they were manufactured by a criminal enterprise in China. The estimated street value of the drugs is $200,000.
Rupani admitted he forwarded the packages sent by his co-conspirator to addresses in Texas and California on a regular basis, using his company’s UPS account. After a search of Rupani’s business, officers also recovered nine plastic bags containing an estimated 20,000 light green triangular pills, suspected counterfeit Xanax, and a box of diet pills.
Amin Rupani’s next court date is set for February 3, 2011 at the Rolling Meadows courthouse.
Cypriot news blogger covers GenXXL bust.
A 54-year-old Israeli man is wanted on a European arrest warrant in connection with the biggest international anabolic steroid bust ever, said a police spokeswoman, who did not reveal his identity.
It is thought that the Israeli is not in Cyprus, she added.
Meanwhile, a 43-year-old Cypriot man who was arrested on suspicion of being the Cyprus supplier in Nicosia remains in jail pending a court appearance next month. Two other men who were also arrested on suspicion of working in the 43-year-old's illegal steroid manufacturing warehouse were released today by Nicosia District Court.
Over the weekend, French police arrested three people in Marseilles in connection with the same steroid distribution ring. The group were thought to be making up to 1000 euros per day just in Marseilles alone, and selling the drugs over the Internet.
On the 7th of December, police arrested five people in Cyprus on suspicion they were involved in the drug supply ring that includes operations in seven countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Austria.
Steroids have serious side effects including an increased risk of cancer, increased risk of heart and liver disease, jaundice, fluid retention, and high blood pressure. Bodybuilders and other athletes who cannot get them legally can easily find them on Internet sites such as the now-vanished website www.genxxlgear. com which received orders by email that were paid for by credit card and sent by mail.
Genxxlgear even released a press release quoting a contact called Brian Wainstein who was sentenced to four months prison for illegal steroid distribution in Canada in 2009. Depending on the source, Wainstein hails from South Africa, Ireland or Israel and is an international fugitive with a Canadian arrest warrant on his head.
It is thought that the Israeli is not in Cyprus, she added.
Meanwhile, a 43-year-old Cypriot man who was arrested on suspicion of being the Cyprus supplier in Nicosia remains in jail pending a court appearance next month. Two other men who were also arrested on suspicion of working in the 43-year-old's illegal steroid manufacturing warehouse were released today by Nicosia District Court.
Over the weekend, French police arrested three people in Marseilles in connection with the same steroid distribution ring. The group were thought to be making up to 1000 euros per day just in Marseilles alone, and selling the drugs over the Internet.
On the 7th of December, police arrested five people in Cyprus on suspicion they were involved in the drug supply ring that includes operations in seven countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Austria.
Steroids have serious side effects including an increased risk of cancer, increased risk of heart and liver disease, jaundice, fluid retention, and high blood pressure. Bodybuilders and other athletes who cannot get them legally can easily find them on Internet sites such as the now-vanished website www.genxxlgear. com which received orders by email that were paid for by credit card and sent by mail.
Genxxlgear even released a press release quoting a contact called Brian Wainstein who was sentenced to four months prison for illegal steroid distribution in Canada in 2009. Depending on the source, Wainstein hails from South Africa, Ireland or Israel and is an international fugitive with a Canadian arrest warrant on his head.
Latest US research shows steroid use by teens is in decline.
Teenage use of anabolic steroids increased in the late 1990s, reaching peak levels in 2000 among 8th graders, 2002 among 10th graders, and 2004 among 12th graders. "The steroid problem among teens has diminished considerably over the past 10 years or so," Johnston said. Since the recent peaks, annual prevalence of steroid use has declined by over two thirds among 8th graders, by more than half in 10th graders, and by four tenths among 12th graders.
There has been little change over the past two years, except for a statistically significant decline of just 0.2age points among 8th graders this year. In 2010, the proportions reporting any use of anabolic steroids in the past year were only 0.5 percent, 1.0 percent, and 1.5 percent in grades 8, 10, and 12, respectively. Among boys, who generally have had considerably higher use than girls, the rates in 2010 were 0.7 percent, 1.3 percent, and 2.5 percent.
There has been little change over the past two years, except for a statistically significant decline of just 0.2age points among 8th graders this year. In 2010, the proportions reporting any use of anabolic steroids in the past year were only 0.5 percent, 1.0 percent, and 1.5 percent in grades 8, 10, and 12, respectively. Among boys, who generally have had considerably higher use than girls, the rates in 2010 were 0.7 percent, 1.3 percent, and 2.5 percent.
Australian doctor found guilty of misconduct for steroid, hgh and valium prescriptions.
A Sydney GP has been found guilty of professional misconduct for inappropriately prescribing body building and anti-ageing drugs to several patients.
But Bao-Quy Nguyen-Phuoc, who has a long history of inappropriate practice including being banned from Medicare and ordered to repay $105,816 in benefits in 2006, is allowed to keep practising in a group surgery.
The Merrylands GP admitted that between 2004 and 2006 he wrongly prescribed steroids to 14 patients, inappropriately gave four patients an epilepsy drug for pain relief and anxiety, prescribed and self-administered human growth hormone and prescribed excessive amounts of pain relief to a drug-dependent patient.
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He also potentially put a patient at risk by giving intravenous vitamin C and kept poor records for 18 patients.
Dr Nguyen-Phuoc said he started treating patients with anabolic and androgenic steroids in 2002 because ''many of them came from the local gym'' and ''had an interest in increasing their muscle bulk or were complaining of fatigue''.
He accepted that prescribing human growth hormone did not have ''a recognised therapeutic use'' but said human growth hormone had a reputation as an anti-ageing hormone causing ''natural fat loss and muscle toning''.
The NSW Medical Board was concerned with Dr Nguyen-Phuoc's heavy use of complementary medicine and described him as ''having a singular non-conventional approach to patient management''.
In its judgment last week, the Medical Tribunal of NSW said it accepted his claim that at the time he administered the steroids he was unaware this was illegal.
Dr Nguyen-Phuoc told the tribunal that being prosecuted had been @life-changing@.
The tribunal decided not to deregister or suspend him, believing he had learnt his lesson. It was satisfied he would not ''repeat any of the conduct which is the subject of the complaint''.
Dr Nguyen-Phuoc is not allowed to possess, supply or administer highly addictive (Schedule 8) drugs, anabolic/androgenic steroids and benzodiazepines.
He has been banned from practising as a solo GP but has been allowed to keep working in a group practice under supervision.
But Bao-Quy Nguyen-Phuoc, who has a long history of inappropriate practice including being banned from Medicare and ordered to repay $105,816 in benefits in 2006, is allowed to keep practising in a group surgery.
The Merrylands GP admitted that between 2004 and 2006 he wrongly prescribed steroids to 14 patients, inappropriately gave four patients an epilepsy drug for pain relief and anxiety, prescribed and self-administered human growth hormone and prescribed excessive amounts of pain relief to a drug-dependent patient.
Advertisement: Story continues below
He also potentially put a patient at risk by giving intravenous vitamin C and kept poor records for 18 patients.
Dr Nguyen-Phuoc said he started treating patients with anabolic and androgenic steroids in 2002 because ''many of them came from the local gym'' and ''had an interest in increasing their muscle bulk or were complaining of fatigue''.
He accepted that prescribing human growth hormone did not have ''a recognised therapeutic use'' but said human growth hormone had a reputation as an anti-ageing hormone causing ''natural fat loss and muscle toning''.
The NSW Medical Board was concerned with Dr Nguyen-Phuoc's heavy use of complementary medicine and described him as ''having a singular non-conventional approach to patient management''.
In its judgment last week, the Medical Tribunal of NSW said it accepted his claim that at the time he administered the steroids he was unaware this was illegal.
Dr Nguyen-Phuoc told the tribunal that being prosecuted had been @life-changing@.
The tribunal decided not to deregister or suspend him, believing he had learnt his lesson. It was satisfied he would not ''repeat any of the conduct which is the subject of the complaint''.
Dr Nguyen-Phuoc is not allowed to possess, supply or administer highly addictive (Schedule 8) drugs, anabolic/androgenic steroids and benzodiazepines.
He has been banned from practising as a solo GP but has been allowed to keep working in a group practice under supervision.
European arrests as part of the Axio / GenXXL bust ?
( We presume it's the operators of Axio retailer Anabolisants.net )
French police have broken up a Marseille-based international doping ring thought to be the biggest in Europe, the government said on Saturday.
The group sold anabolic steroids over the Internet in Europe and the United States, counting nearly 10,000 customers in France alone, the French Sports Ministry said.
A judicial source said the group had nearly 200,000 clients in Europe for its steroids, which are used for developing muscle bulk.
Three people from the southern French city of Marseille have been put under judicial investigation for their part in the ring, which obtained the drugs from labs in Cyprus, China and Turkey, the source said.
Large sums of money were discovered at the homes of two of the men and investigators believe that the operation was making 1,000 euros (849 pounds) a day in Marseille alone.
An international police sweep was carried out against the ring on December 7 and investigators have also uncovered money laundering operations in Germany and the Netherlands.
Prosecutors say police have dismantled a French doping ring that illegally supplied anabolic steroids to bodybuilders and other clients throughout the country.
The Marseille prosecutor's office said Saturday three people in the southern French port city have been handed preliminary charges for their suspected role in running the ring's French operations. Officials say they are suspected of bringing in more than €1,000 ($1,300) a day.
The preliminary charges are for trafficking hazardous substances and doping products. Two of the three have been jailed.
The French operations are believed to be part of a larger international network. The French suspects are accused of selling steroids over the Internet in France, targeting bodybuilders.
French police have broken up a Marseille-based international doping ring thought to be the biggest in Europe, the government said on Saturday.
The group sold anabolic steroids over the Internet in Europe and the United States, counting nearly 10,000 customers in France alone, the French Sports Ministry said.
A judicial source said the group had nearly 200,000 clients in Europe for its steroids, which are used for developing muscle bulk.
Three people from the southern French city of Marseille have been put under judicial investigation for their part in the ring, which obtained the drugs from labs in Cyprus, China and Turkey, the source said.
Large sums of money were discovered at the homes of two of the men and investigators believe that the operation was making 1,000 euros (849 pounds) a day in Marseille alone.
An international police sweep was carried out against the ring on December 7 and investigators have also uncovered money laundering operations in Germany and the Netherlands.
Prosecutors say police have dismantled a French doping ring that illegally supplied anabolic steroids to bodybuilders and other clients throughout the country.
The Marseille prosecutor's office said Saturday three people in the southern French port city have been handed preliminary charges for their suspected role in running the ring's French operations. Officials say they are suspected of bringing in more than €1,000 ($1,300) a day.
The preliminary charges are for trafficking hazardous substances and doping products. Two of the three have been jailed.
The French operations are believed to be part of a larger international network. The French suspects are accused of selling steroids over the Internet in France, targeting bodybuilders.
Germany's Spiegel magazine interviews head of Austria's anti-doping investigation unit.
The illegal trade in performance-enhancing drugs and anabolic steroids is booming. In a SPIEGEL interview, Vienna-based investigator Andreas Holzer talks about their hidden dangers, growing use by amateur athletes and why the problem will only continue to worsen.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Holzer, in January 2009, a special commission headed by you began investigating doping networks. Since then, the success rates of Austrian winter athletes have dropped significantly. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, for example, they captured seven fewer medals than they did four years earlier…
Andreas Holzer: … and you see a connection between the two?
SPIEGEL: You don't?
Holzer: In one year's time, a small special commission cannot cripple doping structures that have been in place for a long time. But we did delve deeply into the material.
SPIEGEL: And what have you found?
Holzer: That the doping trade is a globally networked business comparable to the drug trade -- a mafia, pure and simple.
SPIEGEL: In October, your unit was involved in "Operation Pangea," a major raid in 45 countries that netted 76 suspects and illegal medications with a total market value of roughly $2.6 million (€2 million). Where does it all come from?
Holzer: Many compounds come from China, India or Pakistan, where production is cheap and no one gives any thought to the fact that the production process alone can be hazardous to your health. The active ingredients are sold by online suppliers -- often through illegal online pharmacies -- and are shipped via airmail.
SPIEGEL: Are there inspections of these shipments?
Holzer: There are. But, owing to the sheer volume of mail -- and the fact that drugs are disguised within ordinary-looking packages -- without any concrete leads, it's difficult to pick out any suspicious packages.
SPIEGEL: Where do the drugs finally end up?
Holzer: The dealers are often based in Europe -- and that's where the real business gets started. It isn't the manufacturers of the raw ingredients that are making the big profits: rather, it's the producers -- that is, the people who mix the substances in laboratories, fill the finished product into vials and capsules, label them and distribute them around the world.
SPIEGEL: How big are the profits?
Holzer: Average production costs for a package of anabolic steroids run around 50 cents; and then it's sold for €35 to €40. We arrested a dealer in Austria who had made about €2 million in four years' time. Even I am surprised by these kinds of figures. I spent a long time working as a narcotics investigator, which is why I can say that anyone who deals drugs today is exposed to far greater risks than used to be the case. The doping trade isn't just more lucrative; production is less costly and complicated, and shipping is very simple.
SPIEGEL: Stefan Matschiner, the former track and field athlete and sports manager, was recently convicted of trading in doping substances. The case attracted attention because Matschiner was also selling EPO, an endurance-enhancing hormone.
Holzer: I'm convinced that it wasn't an isolated case.
SPIEGEL: Is EPO also being shipped from Asia?
Holzer: In one of the cases we investigated, the dealer was being supplied by a nearby pharmacy. The pharmacist bought the material for €350 and resold it for €550. Other dealers obtained EPO by using forged prescriptions. It even occasionally happens that entire shipments of EPO are stolen from shipping containers and make their way onto the marketplace. That just goes to show how great the demand is.
SPIEGEL: The most outlandish concoctions are sold on the market, including testosterone creams and high-dose anabolic steroid pills. How are these kinds of thing manufactured?
Holzer: You shouldn't be imagining scenes involving doctors or chemists in white coats handling test tubs in a laboratory. In fact, it looks much more like the production of methamphetamines in meth labs, where the drugs are cooked up over a Bunsen burner. In (the southern Austrian state of) Carinthia, we discovered a laboratory in an apartment that included pure substances and a capsule-making machine. The machine is used to fill the active ingredient into tablet capsules or vials. The equipment is readily available, and the production process is simple. And there are no limits to creativity. For example, anabolic "blades" are the latest hit. They're wafers the size of a DIN-A4 piece of paper, onto which the agent -- usually anabolic steroids -- is sprayed. Consumers break off the pre-perforated dose segments and dissolve them on their tongues.
SPIEGEL: What is the quality of the drugs from these makeshift kitchens?
Holzer: Professional production isn't feasible in underground laboratories. No one guarantees sterility, cleanliness or quality. We have questioned athletes who had handball-sized abscesses on their arms that were caused by contaminated compounds. Convicted producers report that they occasionally put twice as much of the active agent into vials so as to guarantee the desired effect beyond the expiration date.
SPIEGEL: How do athletes and dealers of doping agents find each other?
Holzer: By word of mouth, in places such as health clubs, and on online forums. Professional athletes also look for dealers in these same ways. Indeed, only very few of them have a team physician who will take care of everything for them. As a rule, athletes keep an eye on the scene in the various forums and get tips from older athletes. Then they select a doping-agent dealer whom other athletes have already had good experiences with.
SPIEGEL: Where do the deals go down?
Holzer: I don't want to lump everything together, but the focus is on health clubs and shops where nutritional supplements are sold. In many of these shops, we have been able to seize bags full of anabolic steroids, growth hormones and counterfeit Viagra pills. They're simply kept under the counter.
SPIEGEL: Going shopping in a health club could be risky for a high-profile athlete. Are there other ways to get hold of the drugs?
Holzer: Yes. We managed to arrest a doping dealer who traveled all over Austria for years, selling drugs out of the trunk of his car. Anyone who needed drugs just called his cell phone. The deliveries were then made at rest stops, in fast-food restaurants and in cafés. The man also sold his drugs in Germany.
SPIEGEL: Who are the buyers?
Holzer: Top athletes only represent a small slice of a dealer's customers. They make most of their money off recreational athletes. For example, during our investigation, we encountered amateur athletes who had invested about €7,000 in doping drugs to prepare for a marathon -- merely to move up from 1,024th place to 912th place. It's absurd.
SPIEGEL: At what age does the demand begin?
Holzer: The youngest athletes who are engaging in recreational sports and doping are 15 or 16. In my opinion, this has to do with the change in lifestyle. Nowadays, everything has to happen as quickly and easily as possible. In the past, smoking pot was the cool thing to do. But, these days, those who want to be hip get testosterone injections to build their muscles or take ephedrine to lose weight. There is an acute danger that, in a few years, addiction levels related to performance-enhancing drugs will catch up with those for conventional drugs.
SPIEGEL: What are the potential side effects associated with doping?
Holzer: The people affected have reported reduced sex drives, strokes and heart attacks. Some people with cancer attribute it to their addiction to doping drugs. Almost all the people who take these drugs suffer from severe depression, and some people have frequent outbursts of aggression. When this happens, the only remedy is another fix of the drug, which of course isn't prescribed by a doctor. It's a vicious cycle.
SPIEGEL: Austria enacted an anti-doping law three years ago. In Germany, politicians and associations have resisted such a step, arguing that existing laws against drugs are sufficient. Are they underestimating the problem?
Holzer: Fighting the doping business is still considered exotic. As its investigators, we are sometimes confronted with the accusation that there are more important problems to be dealt with. This may be true. But it is my belief that, in a few years -- and without coordinated countermeasures -- the trade in doping drugs and counterfeit prescription drugs will be just as big as the trade in heroin, cocaine and cannabis products.
SPIEGEL: What kinds of measures are needed?
Holzer: We need harmonized international laws that make international police and judicial cooperation possible. If we don't get these, in the long run, the battle will be pointless. One network that we uncovered extends from Austria all the way to California. We received a lot of support from our colleagues with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). But this only worked because the Americans have good laws in this area.
SPIEGEL: Jeff Novitzki, the former special agent for the US Internal Revenue Service, became famous after his investigation led to the conviction of Marion Jones, the former world champion track and field athlete. Now Novitzki is investigating cycling star Lance Armstrong as an agent for the Food and Drug Administration. Do you also have your sights set on such prominent athletes?
Holzer: We aren't focusing on a specific famous athlete. I'm not interested in big names. We want to understand the system and stop the products.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Holzer, thank you for this interview.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Holzer, in January 2009, a special commission headed by you began investigating doping networks. Since then, the success rates of Austrian winter athletes have dropped significantly. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, for example, they captured seven fewer medals than they did four years earlier…
Andreas Holzer: … and you see a connection between the two?
SPIEGEL: You don't?
Holzer: In one year's time, a small special commission cannot cripple doping structures that have been in place for a long time. But we did delve deeply into the material.
SPIEGEL: And what have you found?
Holzer: That the doping trade is a globally networked business comparable to the drug trade -- a mafia, pure and simple.
SPIEGEL: In October, your unit was involved in "Operation Pangea," a major raid in 45 countries that netted 76 suspects and illegal medications with a total market value of roughly $2.6 million (€2 million). Where does it all come from?
Holzer: Many compounds come from China, India or Pakistan, where production is cheap and no one gives any thought to the fact that the production process alone can be hazardous to your health. The active ingredients are sold by online suppliers -- often through illegal online pharmacies -- and are shipped via airmail.
SPIEGEL: Are there inspections of these shipments?
Holzer: There are. But, owing to the sheer volume of mail -- and the fact that drugs are disguised within ordinary-looking packages -- without any concrete leads, it's difficult to pick out any suspicious packages.
SPIEGEL: Where do the drugs finally end up?
Holzer: The dealers are often based in Europe -- and that's where the real business gets started. It isn't the manufacturers of the raw ingredients that are making the big profits: rather, it's the producers -- that is, the people who mix the substances in laboratories, fill the finished product into vials and capsules, label them and distribute them around the world.
SPIEGEL: How big are the profits?
Holzer: Average production costs for a package of anabolic steroids run around 50 cents; and then it's sold for €35 to €40. We arrested a dealer in Austria who had made about €2 million in four years' time. Even I am surprised by these kinds of figures. I spent a long time working as a narcotics investigator, which is why I can say that anyone who deals drugs today is exposed to far greater risks than used to be the case. The doping trade isn't just more lucrative; production is less costly and complicated, and shipping is very simple.
SPIEGEL: Stefan Matschiner, the former track and field athlete and sports manager, was recently convicted of trading in doping substances. The case attracted attention because Matschiner was also selling EPO, an endurance-enhancing hormone.
Holzer: I'm convinced that it wasn't an isolated case.
SPIEGEL: Is EPO also being shipped from Asia?
Holzer: In one of the cases we investigated, the dealer was being supplied by a nearby pharmacy. The pharmacist bought the material for €350 and resold it for €550. Other dealers obtained EPO by using forged prescriptions. It even occasionally happens that entire shipments of EPO are stolen from shipping containers and make their way onto the marketplace. That just goes to show how great the demand is.
SPIEGEL: The most outlandish concoctions are sold on the market, including testosterone creams and high-dose anabolic steroid pills. How are these kinds of thing manufactured?
Holzer: You shouldn't be imagining scenes involving doctors or chemists in white coats handling test tubs in a laboratory. In fact, it looks much more like the production of methamphetamines in meth labs, where the drugs are cooked up over a Bunsen burner. In (the southern Austrian state of) Carinthia, we discovered a laboratory in an apartment that included pure substances and a capsule-making machine. The machine is used to fill the active ingredient into tablet capsules or vials. The equipment is readily available, and the production process is simple. And there are no limits to creativity. For example, anabolic "blades" are the latest hit. They're wafers the size of a DIN-A4 piece of paper, onto which the agent -- usually anabolic steroids -- is sprayed. Consumers break off the pre-perforated dose segments and dissolve them on their tongues.
SPIEGEL: What is the quality of the drugs from these makeshift kitchens?
Holzer: Professional production isn't feasible in underground laboratories. No one guarantees sterility, cleanliness or quality. We have questioned athletes who had handball-sized abscesses on their arms that were caused by contaminated compounds. Convicted producers report that they occasionally put twice as much of the active agent into vials so as to guarantee the desired effect beyond the expiration date.
SPIEGEL: How do athletes and dealers of doping agents find each other?
Holzer: By word of mouth, in places such as health clubs, and on online forums. Professional athletes also look for dealers in these same ways. Indeed, only very few of them have a team physician who will take care of everything for them. As a rule, athletes keep an eye on the scene in the various forums and get tips from older athletes. Then they select a doping-agent dealer whom other athletes have already had good experiences with.
SPIEGEL: Where do the deals go down?
Holzer: I don't want to lump everything together, but the focus is on health clubs and shops where nutritional supplements are sold. In many of these shops, we have been able to seize bags full of anabolic steroids, growth hormones and counterfeit Viagra pills. They're simply kept under the counter.
SPIEGEL: Going shopping in a health club could be risky for a high-profile athlete. Are there other ways to get hold of the drugs?
Holzer: Yes. We managed to arrest a doping dealer who traveled all over Austria for years, selling drugs out of the trunk of his car. Anyone who needed drugs just called his cell phone. The deliveries were then made at rest stops, in fast-food restaurants and in cafés. The man also sold his drugs in Germany.
SPIEGEL: Who are the buyers?
Holzer: Top athletes only represent a small slice of a dealer's customers. They make most of their money off recreational athletes. For example, during our investigation, we encountered amateur athletes who had invested about €7,000 in doping drugs to prepare for a marathon -- merely to move up from 1,024th place to 912th place. It's absurd.
SPIEGEL: At what age does the demand begin?
Holzer: The youngest athletes who are engaging in recreational sports and doping are 15 or 16. In my opinion, this has to do with the change in lifestyle. Nowadays, everything has to happen as quickly and easily as possible. In the past, smoking pot was the cool thing to do. But, these days, those who want to be hip get testosterone injections to build their muscles or take ephedrine to lose weight. There is an acute danger that, in a few years, addiction levels related to performance-enhancing drugs will catch up with those for conventional drugs.
SPIEGEL: What are the potential side effects associated with doping?
Holzer: The people affected have reported reduced sex drives, strokes and heart attacks. Some people with cancer attribute it to their addiction to doping drugs. Almost all the people who take these drugs suffer from severe depression, and some people have frequent outbursts of aggression. When this happens, the only remedy is another fix of the drug, which of course isn't prescribed by a doctor. It's a vicious cycle.
SPIEGEL: Austria enacted an anti-doping law three years ago. In Germany, politicians and associations have resisted such a step, arguing that existing laws against drugs are sufficient. Are they underestimating the problem?
Holzer: Fighting the doping business is still considered exotic. As its investigators, we are sometimes confronted with the accusation that there are more important problems to be dealt with. This may be true. But it is my belief that, in a few years -- and without coordinated countermeasures -- the trade in doping drugs and counterfeit prescription drugs will be just as big as the trade in heroin, cocaine and cannabis products.
SPIEGEL: What kinds of measures are needed?
Holzer: We need harmonized international laws that make international police and judicial cooperation possible. If we don't get these, in the long run, the battle will be pointless. One network that we uncovered extends from Austria all the way to California. We received a lot of support from our colleagues with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). But this only worked because the Americans have good laws in this area.
SPIEGEL: Jeff Novitzki, the former special agent for the US Internal Revenue Service, became famous after his investigation led to the conviction of Marion Jones, the former world champion track and field athlete. Now Novitzki is investigating cycling star Lance Armstrong as an agent for the Food and Drug Administration. Do you also have your sights set on such prominent athletes?
Holzer: We aren't focusing on a specific famous athlete. I'm not interested in big names. We want to understand the system and stop the products.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Holzer, thank you for this interview.
Major British steroid supplier jailed for seven years.
A man who masterminded a £5m illegal body-building drugs importing business from his Leeds home has been jailed for seven years.
Nicholas Aristotelous, 39, spent vast sums importing human growth hormones, steroids and other class C drugs including viagra from the Far East in a "well organised conspiracy".
The five-year operation is estimated to have had a turnover of £5m and netted a profit of around £2.9m.
A court heard yesterday of the severe dangers associated with the drugs Aristotelous dealt in. Side effects can include major heart problems, cancer, blindness and blood disorders.
Aristotelous, of Roker Lane, Pudsey, was the central figure in the conspiracy which included five other men.
Money was transferred primarily to China to buy thedrugs as well as other prescription-only and unlicensed medicines including Kamagra – a fake version of Viagra.
He negotiated prices, controlled drug orders and managed the despatch of the drugs to UK addresses.
A range of different delivery addresses were used in a bid to avoid rousing the suspicions of the authorities.
Aristotelous ran websites to supply the drugs worldwide and also sold them locally through contacts. It appeared his ambition was to become a leading global supplier.
He had plans to expand his network to Canada and Mexico.
After his arrest Aristotelous admitted his dealings enabled him to live the high life. He travelled everywhere first class by train and by air, stayed in the best international hotels and ate in the finest restaurants, where he enjoyed VIP status.
He also set up Swiss bank accounts for his business use.
When his home was raided £18,000 cash was found. He also told authorities that he hid £50,000 in his garden to avoid tax.
Aristotelous pleading guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the importation of controlled Class C drugs.
He also admitted a further offence of possession with intent to supply Class C drugs. This related to 193,000 Diazepam
tablets found at his home.
Sean Smith, for Aristotelous, said he spotted his business opportunity in 2004 after he had flunked out of university and was almost bankrupt.
He initially thought his activities would be legal after going into partnership with a man he met at the gym where he trained.
The pair flew to China where they were introduced to professors who claimed to have supplied supplements to the Chinese Olympic team at the Beijing Olympics.
He continued to operate despite knowing what he was doing was illegal. Mr Smith said but "snowball had begun to roll" and he needed to provide for his family.
Ben Womack, 33, was jailed for four years for the conspiracy and money laundering.
Womack, of New Street, Broadbottom, Hyde, Cheshire, helped Aristotelous continue his illegal business after his home in Leeds had been raided and he was released on police bail.
Between them they had transferred more than £800,000 out of the country using Womack's dying grandfather's bank account.
Andrew Abbott, 44, of Daleside Road, Pudsey, was jailed for 18 months after a being found guilty of the conspiracy and money laundering earlier this year.
Robert Scott, 43, of Cramner Bank, Moortown, was given a 12 month suspended sentence and 240 hours unpaid work after pleading guilty to the conspiracy and money laundering.
Paul Crabb, of Pavilion Gardens, Pudsey, given a six month suspended sentence and 200 hours unpaid work after being found guilty of money laundering.
Abbott, Scott and Crabb were described as "foot soldiers" in the operation by helping to transfer money back to the far east or collect drugs from mail boxes in the UK.
Another man is still to be sentenced in connection with the operation at a later date.
A BUSINESSMAN lived the high life running an illegal international operation importing millions of pounds' worth of human growth hormones and steroids into the UK , mainly for the bodybuilding market, a court heard.
Over a five-year period from 2004 it was estimated the turnover of the operation run by Nicholas Aristotelous and others was around £5m.
"The profit from the enterprise is therefore in the region of £2.9m," Peter Moulson prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.
Aristotelous travelled first class by plane and air, staying in the best hotels and eating in the finest restaurants.
None of those involved were authorised or registered with the General Medical Council or relevant pharmacological bodies to import or sell any of the products involved, which also included Viagara-type drugs.
Mr Moulson said that according to the UK Medicines Control Agency the dangers associated with their unlicensed and unregulated distribution included serious side effects in the case of the prescription-only drug Kamagra that could include angina, heart attack and possible blindness.
Another drug involved, Tamoxifen, could cause blood disorder and life threatening illnesses such as pancreatitis, thrombo-embolism and cancer.
"It in common with the other Class C drugs must only be used under close supervision by specialist physicians," Mr Moulson said.
Aristotelous, 40, of Roker Lane, Pudsey, Leeds, was jailed for seven years after admitting conspiracy to contravene customs restrictions, possessing drugs with intent and transferring criminal property.
Judge Christopher Batty told him "What you were dealing in was potentially lethal drugs, you had no idea where they were going or who would be taking them."
Mr Moulson said in 2008 inquiries revealed large sums were being transferred from the UK to countries including India, China and Pakistan, for steroids, human growth hormones and other class C drugs, packages then being sent to mailboxes in the north of England.
It turned out that Aristotelous ran several of the companies involved sending orders via e-mail.
He had transferred more than £570,000 in cash to those suppliers and on occasions also travelled abroad himself to hand funds over.
He had mailing addresses set up in Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, York, Manchester and Sheffield and later in the conspiracy recruited a number of "foot soldiers" to handle the transfers or receive packages.
When arrested in 2008 a total of 193,662 tablets were seized from his home with bottles stamped Multivitamin. They turned out to be class C Diazepam.
Following his arrest he continued with his enterprise, recruiting Ben Womack and establishing more mailbox addresses in blatant disregard of the law as Womack transferred more than £800,000.
Womack, 33, of New Street, Broadbottom, Hyde, Cheshire was jailed for four years after he admitted the conspiracy, transferring criminal property and being concerned in the supply of an anabolic steroid Methandionene.
Andrew Abbott, 45 of Daleside Road, Pudsey, was jailed for 18 months after a jury convicted him of the conspiracy and transferring criminal property.
Robert Scott, 43 of Cranmer Bank, Moortown, Leeds, was jailed for 12 months, suspended for 18 months, with 240 hours unpaid work, after he admitted conspiracy and transferring criminal property.
Paul Crabb, 36, of Pavilion Gardens, Farsley, Leeds who was convicted by a jury of transferring criminal property, was given six months in jail suspended for 18 months with 200 hours unpaid work.
Nicholas Aristotelous, 39, spent vast sums importing human growth hormones, steroids and other class C drugs including viagra from the Far East in a "well organised conspiracy".
The five-year operation is estimated to have had a turnover of £5m and netted a profit of around £2.9m.
A court heard yesterday of the severe dangers associated with the drugs Aristotelous dealt in. Side effects can include major heart problems, cancer, blindness and blood disorders.
Aristotelous, of Roker Lane, Pudsey, was the central figure in the conspiracy which included five other men.
Money was transferred primarily to China to buy thedrugs as well as other prescription-only and unlicensed medicines including Kamagra – a fake version of Viagra.
He negotiated prices, controlled drug orders and managed the despatch of the drugs to UK addresses.
A range of different delivery addresses were used in a bid to avoid rousing the suspicions of the authorities.
Aristotelous ran websites to supply the drugs worldwide and also sold them locally through contacts. It appeared his ambition was to become a leading global supplier.
He had plans to expand his network to Canada and Mexico.
After his arrest Aristotelous admitted his dealings enabled him to live the high life. He travelled everywhere first class by train and by air, stayed in the best international hotels and ate in the finest restaurants, where he enjoyed VIP status.
He also set up Swiss bank accounts for his business use.
When his home was raided £18,000 cash was found. He also told authorities that he hid £50,000 in his garden to avoid tax.
Aristotelous pleading guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the importation of controlled Class C drugs.
He also admitted a further offence of possession with intent to supply Class C drugs. This related to 193,000 Diazepam
tablets found at his home.
Sean Smith, for Aristotelous, said he spotted his business opportunity in 2004 after he had flunked out of university and was almost bankrupt.
He initially thought his activities would be legal after going into partnership with a man he met at the gym where he trained.
The pair flew to China where they were introduced to professors who claimed to have supplied supplements to the Chinese Olympic team at the Beijing Olympics.
He continued to operate despite knowing what he was doing was illegal. Mr Smith said but "snowball had begun to roll" and he needed to provide for his family.
Ben Womack, 33, was jailed for four years for the conspiracy and money laundering.
Womack, of New Street, Broadbottom, Hyde, Cheshire, helped Aristotelous continue his illegal business after his home in Leeds had been raided and he was released on police bail.
Between them they had transferred more than £800,000 out of the country using Womack's dying grandfather's bank account.
Andrew Abbott, 44, of Daleside Road, Pudsey, was jailed for 18 months after a being found guilty of the conspiracy and money laundering earlier this year.
Robert Scott, 43, of Cramner Bank, Moortown, was given a 12 month suspended sentence and 240 hours unpaid work after pleading guilty to the conspiracy and money laundering.
Paul Crabb, of Pavilion Gardens, Pudsey, given a six month suspended sentence and 200 hours unpaid work after being found guilty of money laundering.
Abbott, Scott and Crabb were described as "foot soldiers" in the operation by helping to transfer money back to the far east or collect drugs from mail boxes in the UK.
Another man is still to be sentenced in connection with the operation at a later date.
A BUSINESSMAN lived the high life running an illegal international operation importing millions of pounds' worth of human growth hormones and steroids into the UK , mainly for the bodybuilding market, a court heard.
Over a five-year period from 2004 it was estimated the turnover of the operation run by Nicholas Aristotelous and others was around £5m.
"The profit from the enterprise is therefore in the region of £2.9m," Peter Moulson prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.
Aristotelous travelled first class by plane and air, staying in the best hotels and eating in the finest restaurants.
None of those involved were authorised or registered with the General Medical Council or relevant pharmacological bodies to import or sell any of the products involved, which also included Viagara-type drugs.
Mr Moulson said that according to the UK Medicines Control Agency the dangers associated with their unlicensed and unregulated distribution included serious side effects in the case of the prescription-only drug Kamagra that could include angina, heart attack and possible blindness.
Another drug involved, Tamoxifen, could cause blood disorder and life threatening illnesses such as pancreatitis, thrombo-embolism and cancer.
"It in common with the other Class C drugs must only be used under close supervision by specialist physicians," Mr Moulson said.
Aristotelous, 40, of Roker Lane, Pudsey, Leeds, was jailed for seven years after admitting conspiracy to contravene customs restrictions, possessing drugs with intent and transferring criminal property.
Judge Christopher Batty told him "What you were dealing in was potentially lethal drugs, you had no idea where they were going or who would be taking them."
Mr Moulson said in 2008 inquiries revealed large sums were being transferred from the UK to countries including India, China and Pakistan, for steroids, human growth hormones and other class C drugs, packages then being sent to mailboxes in the north of England.
It turned out that Aristotelous ran several of the companies involved sending orders via e-mail.
He had transferred more than £570,000 in cash to those suppliers and on occasions also travelled abroad himself to hand funds over.
He had mailing addresses set up in Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, York, Manchester and Sheffield and later in the conspiracy recruited a number of "foot soldiers" to handle the transfers or receive packages.
When arrested in 2008 a total of 193,662 tablets were seized from his home with bottles stamped Multivitamin. They turned out to be class C Diazepam.
Following his arrest he continued with his enterprise, recruiting Ben Womack and establishing more mailbox addresses in blatant disregard of the law as Womack transferred more than £800,000.
Womack, 33, of New Street, Broadbottom, Hyde, Cheshire was jailed for four years after he admitted the conspiracy, transferring criminal property and being concerned in the supply of an anabolic steroid Methandionene.
Andrew Abbott, 45 of Daleside Road, Pudsey, was jailed for 18 months after a jury convicted him of the conspiracy and transferring criminal property.
Robert Scott, 43 of Cranmer Bank, Moortown, Leeds, was jailed for 12 months, suspended for 18 months, with 240 hours unpaid work, after he admitted conspiracy and transferring criminal property.
Paul Crabb, 36, of Pavilion Gardens, Farsley, Leeds who was convicted by a jury of transferring criminal property, was given six months in jail suspended for 18 months with 200 hours unpaid work.
Bodybuilder gets four years in jail for homebrewing steroids and growing MJ.
A body builder who competed nationally and owned a Clermont County gym was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for manufacturing steroids and growing marijuana.
Jeffery M. Storch, 41, who admitted using steroids since 1993, was despondent as he was handcuffed and led away by a deputy sheriff.
Judge William Walker of Common Pleas Court fined Storch $15,000. He also ordered $1,440 in restitution to cover lab tests for the Clermont County Narcotics Unit, which is overseen by Sheriff A.J. "Tim" Rodenberg.
Storch "realized that to compete at the national level, you have to use steroids," defense attorney Ronald Seibel said. At 5-foot-7 and 217 pounds, "Mr. Storch was just a ripped muscle mass."
A May 4 search of his Union Township home by police resulted in the seizure of five pounds of marijuana, a pot-growing operation, anabolic steroids and compounds that, if combined, would have resulted in hundreds of doses of steroids, the sheriff said.
But "he wasn't going out selling steroids to 17-year-football players in local high schools," Seibel said.
The attorney, seeking leniency, asked the judge to consider that the steroids and pot were for personal use.
"Everybody on the national level uses steroids," Seibel said. "He was provoked by competition."
The judge interrupted, saying Storch might have been motivated to take steroids to compete, but that it was absurd to argue he had been provoked to commit a crime.
As to the marijuana, it "was used because it's calorie free," Seibel said. "At the end of the day, when he needed to relax - instead of having a beer - he would use marijuana. He was on a strict 500 calorie-a-day diet" to limit body fat.
While Storch recently transferred ownership of his interest in Body Worx Fitness 24/7 on Old Ohio 74 in Union Township, he had continued to work as a trainer at the gym, said his other defense attorney, Bill Rapp.
"I've never been more remorseful or regretful for all the people I've caused damage, (including) business partners," Storch told the judge. "I've damaged my business with this. I can't express how sorry I am for my pursuit of the body building just blindly over the years."
Storch lost friends and clients after being indicted Sept. 15 on eight charges, Rapp told the judge. The other six charges - including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and trafficking in steroids and marijuana - were dismissed in a deal with prosecutors when he pleaded guilty Nov. 18.
Storch had no criminal record, but "I do not agree that you have led a law-abiding life," the judge said. "You have been using these drugs for a very long time. ...
"You were an example to many other people in the community with respect to body building," Walker said. "Your occupation was likely to influence other people."
Jeffery M. Storch, 41, who admitted using steroids since 1993, was despondent as he was handcuffed and led away by a deputy sheriff.
Judge William Walker of Common Pleas Court fined Storch $15,000. He also ordered $1,440 in restitution to cover lab tests for the Clermont County Narcotics Unit, which is overseen by Sheriff A.J. "Tim" Rodenberg.
Storch "realized that to compete at the national level, you have to use steroids," defense attorney Ronald Seibel said. At 5-foot-7 and 217 pounds, "Mr. Storch was just a ripped muscle mass."
A May 4 search of his Union Township home by police resulted in the seizure of five pounds of marijuana, a pot-growing operation, anabolic steroids and compounds that, if combined, would have resulted in hundreds of doses of steroids, the sheriff said.
But "he wasn't going out selling steroids to 17-year-football players in local high schools," Seibel said.
The attorney, seeking leniency, asked the judge to consider that the steroids and pot were for personal use.
"Everybody on the national level uses steroids," Seibel said. "He was provoked by competition."
The judge interrupted, saying Storch might have been motivated to take steroids to compete, but that it was absurd to argue he had been provoked to commit a crime.
As to the marijuana, it "was used because it's calorie free," Seibel said. "At the end of the day, when he needed to relax - instead of having a beer - he would use marijuana. He was on a strict 500 calorie-a-day diet" to limit body fat.
While Storch recently transferred ownership of his interest in Body Worx Fitness 24/7 on Old Ohio 74 in Union Township, he had continued to work as a trainer at the gym, said his other defense attorney, Bill Rapp.
"I've never been more remorseful or regretful for all the people I've caused damage, (including) business partners," Storch told the judge. "I've damaged my business with this. I can't express how sorry I am for my pursuit of the body building just blindly over the years."
Storch lost friends and clients after being indicted Sept. 15 on eight charges, Rapp told the judge. The other six charges - including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and trafficking in steroids and marijuana - were dismissed in a deal with prosecutors when he pleaded guilty Nov. 18.
Storch had no criminal record, but "I do not agree that you have led a law-abiding life," the judge said. "You have been using these drugs for a very long time. ...
"You were an example to many other people in the community with respect to body building," Walker said. "Your occupation was likely to influence other people."
Personal trainer gets five year suspended sentence for steroids and recs.
An East Hanover man who wants to be a medical doctor like his father was given a suspended five-year prison sentence Thursday for giving anabolic steroids to a high school athlete and cocaine to his girlfriend.
Apologizing to his family and the community, Anthony M. Cuppari, now 28, pleaded guilty this past February to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution of anabolic steroids in liquid form to a juvenile, a 17-year-old, in 2007.
The sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown means that Cuppari will be on probation for the next five years, must perform 300 hours of community service, and pay a $2,000 fine.
Manahan said he wants Cuppari -- who has taken pre-med courses -- to speak, if permitted, to students and sports groups about the dangers of anabolic steroids. If Cuppari violates any terms of probation in the next five years, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office could argue for him to be sent to prison for 10 years, the judge said.
While defense lawyer Peter Gilbreth suggested a suspended prison sentence would be appropriate, county Assistant Prosecutor Vincent Leo III argued for straight prison time. Leo said the need to deter others from distribution of steroids, as well as other illicit drugs, is overwhelming.
If there is no meaningful punishment, Leo said, steroid-using athletes can just think: "It's okay to cheat. Forget the hard work."
Cuppari was a personal fitness trainer and volunteer football coach for Hanover Park High School when he was picked up with 15 others in 2007 during a drug investigation called "Operation Drop-off" into steroid distribution and use in the county. Cuppari told the judge he was 24 at the time and learned the error of his ways in a drastic way.
Cuppari's sentence was similar to those received by co-defendants. His accused co-ring-leader in the steroid distribution scheme, Michael B. Dente of East Hanover, received two years' probation and 90 days on the Sheriff's Labor Assistance Program, a work-in-lieu-of-jail program, in 2009.
Dr. Anthony ''Tony'' Cuppari, a prominent physician in Morris County, told the judge his son is a ''super person'' who is deeply loved by his family but made an error in judgment.
''He's the type of man you'd want one of your daughters to marry,'' Dr. Cuppari said.
The defendant Cuppari said he bought a gram of cocaine for his then-girlfriend in 2007 because she liked the drug. He said he himself used anabolic steroids between the ages of 21 and 24 and that a high school athlete kept pestering him for steroids to strengthen his neck muscles.
Cuppari said he refused but he learned the youth was using a type of steroid toxic to his liver so he decided to provide him with what he believed was a safer steroid.
''At that time I was so ignorant I believed I was helping him. It was the biggest mistake of my life,'' Cuppari said.
The judge told Cuppari he harmed others and his family and helped to spread ''a societal cancer.''
"You should never minimize the role you played in spreading this cancer. You did harm," Manahan said.
Apologizing to his family and the community, Anthony M. Cuppari, now 28, pleaded guilty this past February to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution of anabolic steroids in liquid form to a juvenile, a 17-year-old, in 2007.
The sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown means that Cuppari will be on probation for the next five years, must perform 300 hours of community service, and pay a $2,000 fine.
Manahan said he wants Cuppari -- who has taken pre-med courses -- to speak, if permitted, to students and sports groups about the dangers of anabolic steroids. If Cuppari violates any terms of probation in the next five years, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office could argue for him to be sent to prison for 10 years, the judge said.
While defense lawyer Peter Gilbreth suggested a suspended prison sentence would be appropriate, county Assistant Prosecutor Vincent Leo III argued for straight prison time. Leo said the need to deter others from distribution of steroids, as well as other illicit drugs, is overwhelming.
If there is no meaningful punishment, Leo said, steroid-using athletes can just think: "It's okay to cheat. Forget the hard work."
Cuppari was a personal fitness trainer and volunteer football coach for Hanover Park High School when he was picked up with 15 others in 2007 during a drug investigation called "Operation Drop-off" into steroid distribution and use in the county. Cuppari told the judge he was 24 at the time and learned the error of his ways in a drastic way.
Cuppari's sentence was similar to those received by co-defendants. His accused co-ring-leader in the steroid distribution scheme, Michael B. Dente of East Hanover, received two years' probation and 90 days on the Sheriff's Labor Assistance Program, a work-in-lieu-of-jail program, in 2009.
Dr. Anthony ''Tony'' Cuppari, a prominent physician in Morris County, told the judge his son is a ''super person'' who is deeply loved by his family but made an error in judgment.
''He's the type of man you'd want one of your daughters to marry,'' Dr. Cuppari said.
The defendant Cuppari said he bought a gram of cocaine for his then-girlfriend in 2007 because she liked the drug. He said he himself used anabolic steroids between the ages of 21 and 24 and that a high school athlete kept pestering him for steroids to strengthen his neck muscles.
Cuppari said he refused but he learned the youth was using a type of steroid toxic to his liver so he decided to provide him with what he believed was a safer steroid.
''At that time I was so ignorant I believed I was helping him. It was the biggest mistake of my life,'' Cuppari said.
The judge told Cuppari he harmed others and his family and helped to spread ''a societal cancer.''
"You should never minimize the role you played in spreading this cancer. You did harm," Manahan said.
Lawmakers call for investigation into steroid use by NJ cops.
Several lawmakers are calling for an investigation into steroid use — often paid for with tax dollars — by New Jersey law enforcement officers and firefighters.
The requests follow an investigation by The Star-Ledger of Newark that found at least 248 officers and firefighters had obtained steroids, growth hormone and other muscle-building drugs from a Jersey City doctor.
The physician, Joseph Colao, died of heart failure at age 45 in 2007. He had patients who worked for municipal police departments, the state Department of Corrections, the state police, the NJ Transit Police Department and county sheriff's and corrections departments.
The newspaper found Colao often falsified diagnoses to justify his prescriptions for the substances. The paper also reported the officers and firefighters used their government benefits to pay for the drugs in most, if not all, cases.
Assembly deputy speaker John McKeon asked Attorney General Paula Dow to open a criminal inquiry and to determine the extent of the problem.
"These people should go to jail," McKeon said. "They shouldn't be on the public dole for substances that are, for the most part, illegal and might constitute insurance fraud."
Some lawmakers said law enforcement officers should be tested.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg said she would sponsor a bill that would bar the State Health Benefits Plan from paying for steroids or growth hormone unless prescribed by specially trained doctors who treat hormone disorders.
The requests follow an investigation by The Star-Ledger of Newark that found at least 248 officers and firefighters had obtained steroids, growth hormone and other muscle-building drugs from a Jersey City doctor.
The physician, Joseph Colao, died of heart failure at age 45 in 2007. He had patients who worked for municipal police departments, the state Department of Corrections, the state police, the NJ Transit Police Department and county sheriff's and corrections departments.
The newspaper found Colao often falsified diagnoses to justify his prescriptions for the substances. The paper also reported the officers and firefighters used their government benefits to pay for the drugs in most, if not all, cases.
Assembly deputy speaker John McKeon asked Attorney General Paula Dow to open a criminal inquiry and to determine the extent of the problem.
"These people should go to jail," McKeon said. "They shouldn't be on the public dole for substances that are, for the most part, illegal and might constitute insurance fraud."
Some lawmakers said law enforcement officers should be tested.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg said she would sponsor a bill that would bar the State Health Benefits Plan from paying for steroids or growth hormone unless prescribed by specially trained doctors who treat hormone disorders.
British Policeman found not guilty of steroid charges.
A Police sergeant from South Tyneside who once used steroids as a form of male contraceptive pill, has been cleared of supply charges.
Darren Towers, who was caught with a stash of the class C drug at his home, was accused of conspiring with Martin Flett, of Jarrow, and Martin Fannan, of County Durham, to supply to bodybuilding friends.
Prosecutors also alleged he turned a blind eye to his friends' involvement with the drugs.
The 41-year-old Northumbria Police officer, who lived in Jarrow, denied conspiracy to supply class C drugs between April 2009 and April 2010, and misconduct in public office between the same dates, during a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.
He admitted in court he had started using steroids as a contraceptive in the 1990s, but said he stopped when he and his wife decided to start a family.
He told jurors he started using steroids again when his interest in bodybuilding as a hobby turned competitive in 2006.
But throughout the trial, Towers said he believed what he was doing was not illegal.
After a four-day trial and six hours' deliberation, the jury cleared him of conspiring to supply or failing to investigate others he knew were involved in supplying.
Towers, who was suspended from the force when the allegations against him were made earlier this year, did not wish to comment after the hearing.
Flett, 27, and Fannan, 34, have admitted conspiracy and are being dealt with separately.
Darren Towers, who was caught with a stash of the class C drug at his home, was accused of conspiring with Martin Flett, of Jarrow, and Martin Fannan, of County Durham, to supply to bodybuilding friends.
Prosecutors also alleged he turned a blind eye to his friends' involvement with the drugs.
The 41-year-old Northumbria Police officer, who lived in Jarrow, denied conspiracy to supply class C drugs between April 2009 and April 2010, and misconduct in public office between the same dates, during a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.
He admitted in court he had started using steroids as a contraceptive in the 1990s, but said he stopped when he and his wife decided to start a family.
He told jurors he started using steroids again when his interest in bodybuilding as a hobby turned competitive in 2006.
But throughout the trial, Towers said he believed what he was doing was not illegal.
After a four-day trial and six hours' deliberation, the jury cleared him of conspiring to supply or failing to investigate others he knew were involved in supplying.
Towers, who was suspended from the force when the allegations against him were made earlier this year, did not wish to comment after the hearing.
Flett, 27, and Fannan, 34, have admitted conspiracy and are being dealt with separately.
More from the German press about GenXXL and Axio bust.
( Machine translated from German )
Big blow to an international dealer Ring: The Bonn prosecutor's office has taken high after several searches of suspected steroids dealer. EXPRESS learned: The gang is said to have converted 12.5 million U.S. dollars to the motor sports-enhancing drugs.
Excitement of the day in an apartment building in Tannenbusch. About 50 police officers search the apartment of a 32-year-old merchant, his arrest in his home. The investigators are particularly interested in the computer of the German-Pakistani.
The reason is to be a kind of Bonn's clerk in an international organization working for the illegal distribution of anabolic doping agent.
Not only in Tannenbusch investigators were working. Prosecutor Robin Fassbender: "Several objects have been searched, even abroad."
The suspicion: The gang allegedly distributing steroids worth 12.5 million U.S. dollars over the Internet. The merchant will have Bonner made contact and "orders" worked. The alleged head of the gang went to the police twice just slip through the cracks. Just before the access he was able to settle in Northern Ireland and Canada, in good time.
Defender Thomas Ohm holds the allegations are exaggerated: "Here one proceeds on the principle that where there's smoke, there's fire."
Big blow to an international dealer Ring: The Bonn prosecutor's office has taken high after several searches of suspected steroids dealer. EXPRESS learned: The gang is said to have converted 12.5 million U.S. dollars to the motor sports-enhancing drugs.
Excitement of the day in an apartment building in Tannenbusch. About 50 police officers search the apartment of a 32-year-old merchant, his arrest in his home. The investigators are particularly interested in the computer of the German-Pakistani.
The reason is to be a kind of Bonn's clerk in an international organization working for the illegal distribution of anabolic doping agent.
Not only in Tannenbusch investigators were working. Prosecutor Robin Fassbender: "Several objects have been searched, even abroad."
The suspicion: The gang allegedly distributing steroids worth 12.5 million U.S. dollars over the Internet. The merchant will have Bonner made contact and "orders" worked. The alleged head of the gang went to the police twice just slip through the cracks. Just before the access he was able to settle in Northern Ireland and Canada, in good time.
Defender Thomas Ohm holds the allegations are exaggerated: "Here one proceeds on the principle that where there's smoke, there's fire."
Germany's Focus magazine confirms GenXXL bust ( Axio, Syntrop etc )
With a raid around the globe, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) have broken the public prosecutor in Bonn and foreign judicial authorities, an international ring of drug dealers.The news magazine FOCUS confirmed the Bonn public prosecutor Robin Faßbender the action was, but did not comment on details.
According to FOCUS, please identify the Rhine anti-doping since May 2008 against an organization called "GenXXL" which will have web sites anabolic steroids, growth hormones and sexual enhancer illegally sold in all continents.In addition to traditional GenXXL probably means to mask the use of anabolic steroids or attenuate the side effects. The buyer had ordered preparations since May 2008 with a value of 12, 5 million U.S. dollars. The suspect, who is, according to the BKA as responsible for the shipping of doping substances, came last week in custody.
According to FOCUS, please identify the Rhine anti-doping since May 2008 against an organization called "GenXXL" which will have web sites anabolic steroids, growth hormones and sexual enhancer illegally sold in all continents.In addition to traditional GenXXL probably means to mask the use of anabolic steroids or attenuate the side effects. The buyer had ordered preparations since May 2008 with a value of 12, 5 million U.S. dollars. The suspect, who is, according to the BKA as responsible for the shipping of doping substances, came last week in custody.
Spain claims to have zero tolerance for doping.
The Spanish government has 'zero tolerance' for doping, Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Friday.
The comments came a day after steeplechase world champion Marta Dominguez and 13 others - including two of her coaches, her agent and doctor Eufemiano Fuentes - were detained on charges of involvement with a doping ring supplying athletes with banned substances.
On Friday, European 1,500m champion Nuria Fernandez and Ethiopian- born European cross country champion Alemayehu Bezabeh were called to testify as witnesses, along with fellow athletes Reyes Estevez, Eugenio Barrio and Digna Luz Murillo, El Pais reported.
None of them was arrested 'since there is no evidence of their involvement in the doping substance distribution network,' the report said.
Rubalcaba called the Dominguez arrest 'very bad news,' but emphasized that 'many people compete honestly for their country.'
'It would be terrible if, because a few, important as they may be, cheat, it would be thought that everyone cheats,' the vice premier said.
'Operation Greyhound' was launched in April, when investigators found evidence that a network of people might be facilitating illegal blood transfusions among sports professionals.
Police Thursday raided the homes of athletes, coaches and doctors in Madrid, Las Palmas, Alicante, Segovia and Palencia. They seized large quantities of steroids, hormones and medication including erythropoietin (EPO), along with bags containing blood and documents about doping practices.
Several Spanish athletes on Friday expressed support for the operation, which they said gives them 'new hope for a cleaner future.'
'We support ... the court process that has been launched. We think it is the right track towards the total eradication of doping from Spanish sport,' said a statement signed by scores of athletes including Manuel Martinez, Juan Carlos Higuero, Ruth Beitia and Mayte Martinez.
'So far, systems for the detection of banned substances have not given the desired results,' they said. 'Cheats have enjoyed an impunity that despaired other sportspeople, who saw themselves condemned to competing at a disadvantage.'
El Pais reported that Alemayehu admitted to having taken banned substances. He was excluded Thursday from the Spain delegation that was to take part Sunday in the European cross country championships in Portugal, where he was regarded as a favourite.
Nuria Fernandez, however, is set to take part in the championships, although Manuel Pascua, the coach she shares with Alemayehu, was arrested Thursday.
The IAAF could only intervene after the police investigation concluded and if it could access the evidence, sources from the ruling athletics body said.
Dominguez, 35, won the 3,000m steeplechase world title 2009 in Berlin and is a European 5,000m champion from 2002 and 2006.
She will miss the 2011 season as she is pregnant, but reportedly plans to return in 2012 for the London Olympics.
She was questioned for eight hours and later released. Three other suspects - a cycling trainer and two pharmacists - were also released.
Suspects detained in Madrid, including Fuentes, were to be questioned by judges from Sunday onwards. Dominguez was expected to appear in court in her home city of Palencia, but the date for the hearing has not yet been set.
This investigation is the third of its kind directed against doping in Spain.
Last year, 20km race walker Francisco Fernandez, a 2006 European champion and 2004 Olympic silver medallist, was banned after Operation Grail.
In 2006, the physician Fuentes was at the centre of the biggest probe so far, Operation Puerto, which targeted cyclists, team officials and doctors over blood doping.
Fuentes was not punished at the time because Spain only introduced anti-doping legislation later in 2006.
The comments came a day after steeplechase world champion Marta Dominguez and 13 others - including two of her coaches, her agent and doctor Eufemiano Fuentes - were detained on charges of involvement with a doping ring supplying athletes with banned substances.
On Friday, European 1,500m champion Nuria Fernandez and Ethiopian- born European cross country champion Alemayehu Bezabeh were called to testify as witnesses, along with fellow athletes Reyes Estevez, Eugenio Barrio and Digna Luz Murillo, El Pais reported.
None of them was arrested 'since there is no evidence of their involvement in the doping substance distribution network,' the report said.
Rubalcaba called the Dominguez arrest 'very bad news,' but emphasized that 'many people compete honestly for their country.'
'It would be terrible if, because a few, important as they may be, cheat, it would be thought that everyone cheats,' the vice premier said.
'Operation Greyhound' was launched in April, when investigators found evidence that a network of people might be facilitating illegal blood transfusions among sports professionals.
Police Thursday raided the homes of athletes, coaches and doctors in Madrid, Las Palmas, Alicante, Segovia and Palencia. They seized large quantities of steroids, hormones and medication including erythropoietin (EPO), along with bags containing blood and documents about doping practices.
Several Spanish athletes on Friday expressed support for the operation, which they said gives them 'new hope for a cleaner future.'
'We support ... the court process that has been launched. We think it is the right track towards the total eradication of doping from Spanish sport,' said a statement signed by scores of athletes including Manuel Martinez, Juan Carlos Higuero, Ruth Beitia and Mayte Martinez.
'So far, systems for the detection of banned substances have not given the desired results,' they said. 'Cheats have enjoyed an impunity that despaired other sportspeople, who saw themselves condemned to competing at a disadvantage.'
El Pais reported that Alemayehu admitted to having taken banned substances. He was excluded Thursday from the Spain delegation that was to take part Sunday in the European cross country championships in Portugal, where he was regarded as a favourite.
Nuria Fernandez, however, is set to take part in the championships, although Manuel Pascua, the coach she shares with Alemayehu, was arrested Thursday.
The IAAF could only intervene after the police investigation concluded and if it could access the evidence, sources from the ruling athletics body said.
Dominguez, 35, won the 3,000m steeplechase world title 2009 in Berlin and is a European 5,000m champion from 2002 and 2006.
She will miss the 2011 season as she is pregnant, but reportedly plans to return in 2012 for the London Olympics.
She was questioned for eight hours and later released. Three other suspects - a cycling trainer and two pharmacists - were also released.
Suspects detained in Madrid, including Fuentes, were to be questioned by judges from Sunday onwards. Dominguez was expected to appear in court in her home city of Palencia, but the date for the hearing has not yet been set.
This investigation is the third of its kind directed against doping in Spain.
Last year, 20km race walker Francisco Fernandez, a 2006 European champion and 2004 Olympic silver medallist, was banned after Operation Grail.
In 2006, the physician Fuentes was at the centre of the biggest probe so far, Operation Puerto, which targeted cyclists, team officials and doctors over blood doping.
Fuentes was not punished at the time because Spain only introduced anti-doping legislation later in 2006.
Spain's first lady of athletics suspended on steroids trafficking charges.
Martha Dominguez, the world steeplechase champion, was yesterday suspended as one of four vice-presidents of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation after being charged in a major doping investigation. This is the third major doping scandal to hit Spanish sport in the past four years.
In a letter yesterday on the federation website, its president José Maria Odriozola told the athlete: “In light of the events relating to an alleged doping scheme in which you have been implicated, I have decided to suspend you provisionally as vice-president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation. I hope these charges will be resolved rapidly and we can learn the extent of your implication as soon as possible.”
Police detained Dominguez and interrogated her for seven hours before charging her with trafficking and distributing doping products. She is four months pregnant and so was released on bail late on Thursday night.
Police searched her home in Palencia and were later seen carrying out boxes, a computer and sports bags believed to contain steroids, hormones and other performance-enhancing drugs, as well as files and other records.
In a police action codenamed Operation Galgo (Greyhound), 13 other people were also detained for questioning. They included Dominguez’s coach and manager, doctors, pharmacists and a cyclist. Three of them have been charged and remanded in custody to appear before a judge tomorrow. Police have not discounted the possibility of further arrests.
Among the detainees were Dr Eufemio Fuentes and his sister Yolanda, who were both named in 2006 as part of Operation Puerto, the largest doping investigation in Spanish sporting history, when police discovered large quantities of steroids, bags of oxygenated blood, EPO, other drugs and files with names of their clients in Fuentes’s laboratory in Madrid. Operation Puerto resulted in the eresulted in the expulsion of two Tour de France cycling teams and the suspension of four cyclists.
The case was dropped a year later because doping in sports was not then considered a public health offence in Spain. The case was reopened a year later after it had been included in the Spanish penal code, and leading cyclist Alejandro Valverde was suspended.
Dominguez had, until falling into disgrace yesterday, been considered the first lady of Spanish athletics.
In a letter yesterday on the federation website, its president José Maria Odriozola told the athlete: “In light of the events relating to an alleged doping scheme in which you have been implicated, I have decided to suspend you provisionally as vice-president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation. I hope these charges will be resolved rapidly and we can learn the extent of your implication as soon as possible.”
Police detained Dominguez and interrogated her for seven hours before charging her with trafficking and distributing doping products. She is four months pregnant and so was released on bail late on Thursday night.
Police searched her home in Palencia and were later seen carrying out boxes, a computer and sports bags believed to contain steroids, hormones and other performance-enhancing drugs, as well as files and other records.
In a police action codenamed Operation Galgo (Greyhound), 13 other people were also detained for questioning. They included Dominguez’s coach and manager, doctors, pharmacists and a cyclist. Three of them have been charged and remanded in custody to appear before a judge tomorrow. Police have not discounted the possibility of further arrests.
Among the detainees were Dr Eufemio Fuentes and his sister Yolanda, who were both named in 2006 as part of Operation Puerto, the largest doping investigation in Spanish sporting history, when police discovered large quantities of steroids, bags of oxygenated blood, EPO, other drugs and files with names of their clients in Fuentes’s laboratory in Madrid. Operation Puerto resulted in the eresulted in the expulsion of two Tour de France cycling teams and the suspension of four cyclists.
The case was dropped a year later because doping in sports was not then considered a public health offence in Spain. The case was reopened a year later after it had been included in the Spanish penal code, and leading cyclist Alejandro Valverde was suspended.
Dominguez had, until falling into disgrace yesterday, been considered the first lady of Spanish athletics.
Australian detective swapped Police intel for steroids.
Police corruption busters have nabbed a homicide squad detective for allegedly leaking secrets to organised crime gangs.
The detective senior constable was suspended this week.
His arrest followed an eight-month probe into his activities by the Office of Police Integrity.
The detective had been under surveillance for months and was allegedly observed meeting organised crime figures.
He allegedly provided confidential information in return for steroids. He is believed to have used some and sold others.
OPI investigators this week searched the homicide squad office in St Kilda Rd and removed material belonging to the detective. Officers from the Ethical Standards Department assisted in the search and the arrest.
The case has sent shockwaves through the homicide squad.
OPI investigators are trying to discover if the alleged corrupt activities of the detective jeopardised any investigations.
They are concerned about what the detective might have been expected to do in return for getting drugs.
The detective has allegedly been trading secret information to the criminals who allegedly supplied him with steroids.
Apart from facing possible drug charges, he may also be charged under section 127a of the Police Regulation Act, which relates to unauthorised disclosure of information and documents, and which carries a maximum jail term of two years.
A Victoria Police spokesman yesterday confirmed an officer had been interviewed in relation to the release of information and drug-related matters.
"No charges have been laid at this stage; however, the detective senior constable has been suspended with pay. This is an ongoing investigation, no further information will be released," he said.
An Australian Crime Commission report warned about increased steroid use, including by police officers.
"Users are body-building and gym enthusiasts, members of the gay scene, people in occupations requiring physical prowess (security guards and police)," its Australian Illicit Drugs report said.
The detective senior constable was suspended this week.
His arrest followed an eight-month probe into his activities by the Office of Police Integrity.
The detective had been under surveillance for months and was allegedly observed meeting organised crime figures.
He allegedly provided confidential information in return for steroids. He is believed to have used some and sold others.
OPI investigators this week searched the homicide squad office in St Kilda Rd and removed material belonging to the detective. Officers from the Ethical Standards Department assisted in the search and the arrest.
The case has sent shockwaves through the homicide squad.
OPI investigators are trying to discover if the alleged corrupt activities of the detective jeopardised any investigations.
They are concerned about what the detective might have been expected to do in return for getting drugs.
The detective has allegedly been trading secret information to the criminals who allegedly supplied him with steroids.
Apart from facing possible drug charges, he may also be charged under section 127a of the Police Regulation Act, which relates to unauthorised disclosure of information and documents, and which carries a maximum jail term of two years.
A Victoria Police spokesman yesterday confirmed an officer had been interviewed in relation to the release of information and drug-related matters.
"No charges have been laid at this stage; however, the detective senior constable has been suspended with pay. This is an ongoing investigation, no further information will be released," he said.
An Australian Crime Commission report warned about increased steroid use, including by police officers.
"Users are body-building and gym enthusiasts, members of the gay scene, people in occupations requiring physical prowess (security guards and police)," its Australian Illicit Drugs report said.
British Policeman tells court he started using steroids as a male contraceptive
A Police sergeant accused of dealing steroids to pals has told jurors he first started using the illegal drugs as a form of male contraception.
Northumbria officer Darren Towers is accused of bulk buying anabolic steroids to distribute to fellow bodybuilders and turning a blind eye to others who were dealing.
The former seaman, who spent time in the Royal Navy before joining the force, denies conspiracy to supply steroids and misconduct in public office. He is being tried by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.
The 41-year-old, who was based in Sunderland, told jurors yesterday he first started using steroids in the late 1990s when his wife was having problems taking the contraceptive pill, but believed they were legal.
He said: “My wife was on the contraceptive pill and it caused issues for her, effects the pill was having.
“As a result of that, and things I had read in magazines, I was aware testosterone was being tried as a male contraceptive and I looked into that to see if it could be an option for me to use, instead of my wife.”
When asked by his barrister Julian Smith if he went on to use steroids as a contraceptive he said: “I did, yes.”
Towers said his research prompted him to believe steroids were legal to possess and import for personal use.
He stopped using the drugs as a contraceptive when he and his wife decided to start a family.
The court heard Towers joined the police in 1998 and “excelled” through his training.
Towers, who continued his bodybuilding and became a black belt in martial arts, told jurors he became the target of a criminal gang because of his work on the beat in Hendon, Sunderland.
He said he received personal threats from the Hendon Mad Dogs and was advised by his superiors to take steps, such as alternating his route home, to protect himself.
The officer was visibly upset as he told the court: “They were notorious within Sunderland for the crimes they were committing against people, so much so there was a task force set up to target these people.
“I was already involved in incidents, where I had arrested three people single handedly, and they started targeting me as an individual.”
Towers said on one occasion his hat was stolen in Hendon, put on top of a telegraph pole, and threats written in chalk of what was going to happen to him.
On another occasion a sign was put up in Hendon which depicted a gun and indicating the officer would be next.
Towers said despite the threats, regulars at the Nissan gym where he trained, and a gym in Pelaw, were aware he was a serving officer and he never made a secret of the fact.
Towers also spent time with the armed response unit and was posted to Gill Bridge police station in Sunderland where he worked as custody sergeant.
It was in 2006, when Towers decided to take his bodybuilding to a competitive level, he decided to use steroids alongside his almost daily gym sessions, strict diet and vitamin supplements.
He said he once again checked into the legality of taking the drugs and concluded he was not doing anything wrong. The trial continues.
Northumbria officer Darren Towers is accused of bulk buying anabolic steroids to distribute to fellow bodybuilders and turning a blind eye to others who were dealing.
The former seaman, who spent time in the Royal Navy before joining the force, denies conspiracy to supply steroids and misconduct in public office. He is being tried by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.
The 41-year-old, who was based in Sunderland, told jurors yesterday he first started using steroids in the late 1990s when his wife was having problems taking the contraceptive pill, but believed they were legal.
He said: “My wife was on the contraceptive pill and it caused issues for her, effects the pill was having.
“As a result of that, and things I had read in magazines, I was aware testosterone was being tried as a male contraceptive and I looked into that to see if it could be an option for me to use, instead of my wife.”
When asked by his barrister Julian Smith if he went on to use steroids as a contraceptive he said: “I did, yes.”
Towers said his research prompted him to believe steroids were legal to possess and import for personal use.
He stopped using the drugs as a contraceptive when he and his wife decided to start a family.
The court heard Towers joined the police in 1998 and “excelled” through his training.
Towers, who continued his bodybuilding and became a black belt in martial arts, told jurors he became the target of a criminal gang because of his work on the beat in Hendon, Sunderland.
He said he received personal threats from the Hendon Mad Dogs and was advised by his superiors to take steps, such as alternating his route home, to protect himself.
The officer was visibly upset as he told the court: “They were notorious within Sunderland for the crimes they were committing against people, so much so there was a task force set up to target these people.
“I was already involved in incidents, where I had arrested three people single handedly, and they started targeting me as an individual.”
Towers said on one occasion his hat was stolen in Hendon, put on top of a telegraph pole, and threats written in chalk of what was going to happen to him.
On another occasion a sign was put up in Hendon which depicted a gun and indicating the officer would be next.
Towers said despite the threats, regulars at the Nissan gym where he trained, and a gym in Pelaw, were aware he was a serving officer and he never made a secret of the fact.
Towers also spent time with the armed response unit and was posted to Gill Bridge police station in Sunderland where he worked as custody sergeant.
It was in 2006, when Towers decided to take his bodybuilding to a competitive level, he decided to use steroids alongside his almost daily gym sessions, strict diet and vitamin supplements.
He said he once again checked into the legality of taking the drugs and concluded he was not doing anything wrong. The trial continues.
British Policeman denies supplying anabolic steroids made by UGL WildCat.
( despite what the journalist claims below possession of anabolic steroids for personal use isn't illegal in the UK. )
A Police officer muscleman supplied steroids to fellow bodybuilders and turned a blind eye to their drug dealings, a court heard.
Darren Towers, a custody sergeant with Northumbria Police, is accused of conspiring with two other men to supply the class C drugs.
Towers, 41, from Jarrow, South Tyneside, is also alleged to have committed misconduct in public office by failing to investigate the other two despite knowing they were involved in criminal activity.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Towers, a keen bodybuilder, had bought and sold steroids to share between a group of friends he knew from a gym where he worked out.
The other two men, Martin Flett and Martin Fannan, have already pleaded guilty to the drug charge but Towers denies that and misconduct.
Alex Menary, prosecuting, said: “The defendant is a serving police officer, a custody sergeant with Northumbria Police.
“Flett lived close to the defendant and they trained at the same gym and all three are linked by their involvement in bodybuilding and their use of steroids. The prosecution say all three conspired to supply steroids among themselves and to others.
“This is not a case of standing on street corners, this is on a low-level basis among users of these drugs and friends and associates in the gym where they trained.
“He also misconducted himself by failing to report the activities of Flett and Fannan. He knew these two were dealing steroids and failed to report and investigate that.”
Towers, a police officer with Northumbria since 1998, was working as a custody sergeant in Sunderland at the time of his arrest. Officers went to his home in March and he was arrested and a stash of steroids and tablets was found. When Towers’ phone was analysed there were hundreds of text messages between him and Flett, which prosecutors say were to set up deals. In one of the texts Towers is said to have told Flett: “Don’t forget to delete this message.”
Mr Menary said: “He knows text messages leave a trail and a saying ‘don’t forget to delete this’ as he doesn’t want to leave a trail.”
Jurors were told Towers must have known steroids were illegal as he allegedly checked the police computer system to see what their legal status was. When he was arrested, Towers said he had done some research on the internet and claimed he didn’t think steroids were illegal.
He said he had been using the drugs since 2006 but denied selling them to others, saying he knew Flett but had never given him anything other than legal protein powder.
Prosecutors say the steroids were obtained from various sources but mainly from a firm called Wildcat.
Flett, 27, of Ely Way, Fellgate, Jarrow, and Fannan, 34, of Hudson Avenue, Horden, County Durham, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to supply drugs charge.
Towers denies conspiracy to supply drugs and misconduct between April 1, 2009, and April 1, 2010.
A Police officer muscleman supplied steroids to fellow bodybuilders and turned a blind eye to their drug dealings, a court heard.
Darren Towers, a custody sergeant with Northumbria Police, is accused of conspiring with two other men to supply the class C drugs.
Towers, 41, from Jarrow, South Tyneside, is also alleged to have committed misconduct in public office by failing to investigate the other two despite knowing they were involved in criminal activity.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Towers, a keen bodybuilder, had bought and sold steroids to share between a group of friends he knew from a gym where he worked out.
The other two men, Martin Flett and Martin Fannan, have already pleaded guilty to the drug charge but Towers denies that and misconduct.
Alex Menary, prosecuting, said: “The defendant is a serving police officer, a custody sergeant with Northumbria Police.
“Flett lived close to the defendant and they trained at the same gym and all three are linked by their involvement in bodybuilding and their use of steroids. The prosecution say all three conspired to supply steroids among themselves and to others.
“This is not a case of standing on street corners, this is on a low-level basis among users of these drugs and friends and associates in the gym where they trained.
“He also misconducted himself by failing to report the activities of Flett and Fannan. He knew these two were dealing steroids and failed to report and investigate that.”
Towers, a police officer with Northumbria since 1998, was working as a custody sergeant in Sunderland at the time of his arrest. Officers went to his home in March and he was arrested and a stash of steroids and tablets was found. When Towers’ phone was analysed there were hundreds of text messages between him and Flett, which prosecutors say were to set up deals. In one of the texts Towers is said to have told Flett: “Don’t forget to delete this message.”
Mr Menary said: “He knows text messages leave a trail and a saying ‘don’t forget to delete this’ as he doesn’t want to leave a trail.”
Jurors were told Towers must have known steroids were illegal as he allegedly checked the police computer system to see what their legal status was. When he was arrested, Towers said he had done some research on the internet and claimed he didn’t think steroids were illegal.
He said he had been using the drugs since 2006 but denied selling them to others, saying he knew Flett but had never given him anything other than legal protein powder.
Prosecutors say the steroids were obtained from various sources but mainly from a firm called Wildcat.
Flett, 27, of Ely Way, Fellgate, Jarrow, and Fannan, 34, of Hudson Avenue, Horden, County Durham, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to supply drugs charge.
Towers denies conspiracy to supply drugs and misconduct between April 1, 2009, and April 1, 2010.
Major international UG lab busted in Cyprus.
( there are of course several famous UG brands based in Cyprus and it's neighbours, the hint about forthcoming raids in other countries is worrying )
Five people including a pensioner couple and their son, were arrested yesterday after substantial quantities of raw materials that could be used to manufacture illegal anabolic steroids were located in a laboratory during a police raid in Nicosia.
The couple, aged 72 and 71, were expected to be released after questioning, police said.
Their 43-year-old son and two foreign inividuals, 25 and 32, will be brought before a court today for a remand hearing.
Police spokesman Michael Katsounotos said there was some concern that if, as police suspected, steroids were being manufactured at the warehouse, that they were being distributed around the world from Cyprus.
After receiving information from Germany recently, Cypriot police launched multiple operations around the island yesterday, while similar simultaneous operations were launched around Europe and in the US in an attempt to crack down on illegal anabolic steroids.
Katsounotos said: “At 8am a raid was executed. We issued a total of seven search warrants for premises for which we suspect were used to manufacture, store and distribute prohibited substances.''
Katsounotos said that simultaneous operations were launched in Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Ireland and the US. According to Katsounotos the operation was coordinated by the German police.
Katsounotos said that in six of the premises no illegal substances were found. However in one, believed to be inside Kronos Commercial Centre in Latsia, Nicosia, large quantities of raw materials were found which could be used to manufacture prohibited drugs, namely anabolic steroids.
Katsounotos said: “All the materials and documentation found on the premises have been confiscated and sent to be analysed by the state laboratory.”
He said that from documents confiscated it appeared that the alleged steroids were exported abroad. However he could not rule out the possibility that some were released into the Cypriot market, he said. “We need to carry out further investigations” Katsounotos added.
Responding to questions as to whether any arrests had been made, Katsounotos said: “The manager of the laboratory is out of the country, he is wanted for questioning. As soon as he gets back we will speak to him. We are still in the initial stages of our investigation.”
Five people including a pensioner couple and their son, were arrested yesterday after substantial quantities of raw materials that could be used to manufacture illegal anabolic steroids were located in a laboratory during a police raid in Nicosia.
The couple, aged 72 and 71, were expected to be released after questioning, police said.
Their 43-year-old son and two foreign inividuals, 25 and 32, will be brought before a court today for a remand hearing.
Police spokesman Michael Katsounotos said there was some concern that if, as police suspected, steroids were being manufactured at the warehouse, that they were being distributed around the world from Cyprus.
After receiving information from Germany recently, Cypriot police launched multiple operations around the island yesterday, while similar simultaneous operations were launched around Europe and in the US in an attempt to crack down on illegal anabolic steroids.
Katsounotos said: “At 8am a raid was executed. We issued a total of seven search warrants for premises for which we suspect were used to manufacture, store and distribute prohibited substances.''
Katsounotos said that simultaneous operations were launched in Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Ireland and the US. According to Katsounotos the operation was coordinated by the German police.
Katsounotos said that in six of the premises no illegal substances were found. However in one, believed to be inside Kronos Commercial Centre in Latsia, Nicosia, large quantities of raw materials were found which could be used to manufacture prohibited drugs, namely anabolic steroids.
Katsounotos said: “All the materials and documentation found on the premises have been confiscated and sent to be analysed by the state laboratory.”
He said that from documents confiscated it appeared that the alleged steroids were exported abroad. However he could not rule out the possibility that some were released into the Cypriot market, he said. “We need to carry out further investigations” Katsounotos added.
Responding to questions as to whether any arrests had been made, Katsounotos said: “The manager of the laboratory is out of the country, he is wanted for questioning. As soon as he gets back we will speak to him. We are still in the initial stages of our investigation.”
Prosecutor of Signature pharmacy steroids case faces $75 million law suit.
An upstate New York prosecutor who charged a Florida pharmacy in 2007 with selling anabolic steroids to pro athletes and entertainers is being sued for $75 million by the pharmacists, who claim defamation and false arrest with their indictments now dismissed in criminal court.
Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares made headlines when he accompanied federal and state agents in a raid at Signature Pharmacy in Orlando and charged its operators with illicit sales of performance-enhancing drugs.
Those charges have been dismissed twice by Albany County Judge Stephen Herrick — most recently citing a conflict of interest with Soares because of the pending federal civil suit — and neighboring district attorneys declined to take the case. Herrick has appointed a private attorney as special prosecutor to again consider charges.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell in Orlando ruled in June that he doesn't know if Signature violated any New York law or even if the arrest warrants from New York were valid since they were based on the first in a series of indictments that was no longer in effect during the Feb. 27, 2007, raid and arrests.
Soares and his deputy, Christopher Baynes, who is also being sued, have appealed the federal judge's decision to permit the civil suit. An appeals ruling could take months.
In the civil suit claiming false arrest and defamation, Presnell refused to grant the prosecutors immunity that would normally apply when doing their jobs.
"They were a thousand miles from their jurisdiction and were participating in — indeed, Soares was purportedly 'commanding' — a law enforcement raid on Signature's premises," Presnell wrote, saying the prosecutors' focus appeared to be getting press attention. "Even assuming that they had some authority to execute or participate in the execution of Florida search warrants, Soares and Baynes had no judicial business in Florida."
Soares in 2008 said authorities had been able "to disrupt a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise trafficking illegal steroids to thousands of people across the country." He said the focus was distributors, not clients, and declined to publicly confirm the names of prominent athletes believed to be clients.
More recently, Soares' office has repeatedly declined to comment on the case, except a brief statement that Herrick's decision last month to throw out the latest indictment and bar Soares from the prosecution "undermines the criminal justice system."
Albany prosecutors met with representatives from the Mitchell Commission investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball in 2007. Soares said they also worked for months with National Football League officials.
In June, Presnell ordered the return of Signature's records and inventory, saying prosecutors overstepped their bounds in taking everything.
Attorney Amy Tingley said the drugs had expired and while Signature did remain open after the raid, it never recovered. It formally closed its pharmacy operations in late 2008. Her clients were arrested publicly, spent a week in jail and were flown to Albany before posting bail. Three have gone to work for another pharmacy, and two are not working, she said.
A business evaluation filed last year in federal court estimated damages for the pharmacy's lost value at $27.2 million and lost profits at $48.5 million.
"These individuals, like Judge Presnell said, they have not been convicted of anything," Tingley said. "They stand here today, as they had on day one, proclaiming their innocence."
Within two years of the raid, 17 other people pleaded guilty to drug and conspiracy counts in Albany, including operators and employees of several distributors that did business with Signature, as well as four doctors or former doctors who wrote prescriptions.
Soares maintained it was illegal in New York for a doctor to prescribe drugs without examining the patient in person and illegal for a pharmacy to dispense drugs without a valid prescription.
Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares made headlines when he accompanied federal and state agents in a raid at Signature Pharmacy in Orlando and charged its operators with illicit sales of performance-enhancing drugs.
Those charges have been dismissed twice by Albany County Judge Stephen Herrick — most recently citing a conflict of interest with Soares because of the pending federal civil suit — and neighboring district attorneys declined to take the case. Herrick has appointed a private attorney as special prosecutor to again consider charges.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell in Orlando ruled in June that he doesn't know if Signature violated any New York law or even if the arrest warrants from New York were valid since they were based on the first in a series of indictments that was no longer in effect during the Feb. 27, 2007, raid and arrests.
Soares and his deputy, Christopher Baynes, who is also being sued, have appealed the federal judge's decision to permit the civil suit. An appeals ruling could take months.
In the civil suit claiming false arrest and defamation, Presnell refused to grant the prosecutors immunity that would normally apply when doing their jobs.
"They were a thousand miles from their jurisdiction and were participating in — indeed, Soares was purportedly 'commanding' — a law enforcement raid on Signature's premises," Presnell wrote, saying the prosecutors' focus appeared to be getting press attention. "Even assuming that they had some authority to execute or participate in the execution of Florida search warrants, Soares and Baynes had no judicial business in Florida."
Soares in 2008 said authorities had been able "to disrupt a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise trafficking illegal steroids to thousands of people across the country." He said the focus was distributors, not clients, and declined to publicly confirm the names of prominent athletes believed to be clients.
More recently, Soares' office has repeatedly declined to comment on the case, except a brief statement that Herrick's decision last month to throw out the latest indictment and bar Soares from the prosecution "undermines the criminal justice system."
Albany prosecutors met with representatives from the Mitchell Commission investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball in 2007. Soares said they also worked for months with National Football League officials.
In June, Presnell ordered the return of Signature's records and inventory, saying prosecutors overstepped their bounds in taking everything.
Attorney Amy Tingley said the drugs had expired and while Signature did remain open after the raid, it never recovered. It formally closed its pharmacy operations in late 2008. Her clients were arrested publicly, spent a week in jail and were flown to Albany before posting bail. Three have gone to work for another pharmacy, and two are not working, she said.
A business evaluation filed last year in federal court estimated damages for the pharmacy's lost value at $27.2 million and lost profits at $48.5 million.
"These individuals, like Judge Presnell said, they have not been convicted of anything," Tingley said. "They stand here today, as they had on day one, proclaiming their innocence."
Within two years of the raid, 17 other people pleaded guilty to drug and conspiracy counts in Albany, including operators and employees of several distributors that did business with Signature, as well as four doctors or former doctors who wrote prescriptions.
Soares maintained it was illegal in New York for a doctor to prescribe drugs without examining the patient in person and illegal for a pharmacy to dispense drugs without a valid prescription.
Australian bodybuilder convicted of just steroid possession ( what about the recs ? )
Brisbane bodybuilder, Christos Thomas, 29, who suffers from a condition known as "body dysmorphia" has been convicted of steroid possession.
The Supreme Court heard police raided his Riverhills home last year and found steroids, cannabis and ecstasy.
Justice John Byrne sentenced Thomas to 18 months in prison but ordered his immediate release on parole.
He urged Thomas to seek intensive psychiatric and psychological intervention to treat his obsession with his body image.
The Supreme Court heard police raided his Riverhills home last year and found steroids, cannabis and ecstasy.
Justice John Byrne sentenced Thomas to 18 months in prison but ordered his immediate release on parole.
He urged Thomas to seek intensive psychiatric and psychological intervention to treat his obsession with his body image.
Clint Faught and the Taylor Hooton Foundation make some interesting comments on steroid use.
“Sixty-five percent of creatine sold today is contaminated with steroids,” Faught said as he tried to emphasize to the students that using such supplements could be dangerous. He referred to nsfsport.con as a Web site that “lets you know what’s safe and what’s not.”
( I'm sure his comments will boost sales of creatine by those looking for free steroids )
As for anabolic steroids, he said the biggest danger there is “you don’t even know what exactly it is you’re taking.” He said a summary of 217 studies of the chemical makeup of illegal anabolic steroids shows that 30 percent did not contain what was on the label, and that 40 percent of the time the listed dosages were wrong.
Faught also addressed the question of who is using APEDs. He said of 1 million teenagers that admitted to using anabolic steroids, half were not even athletes.
“The fastest growing group of users is 14 and 15-year-old girls,” Faught said. “More than 1 in 20 high school girls already use anabolic steroids, and that number continues to increase.
“The No. 1 reason is to improve the way they look and feel about themselves.”
( Not sure why the average high school girl would think that acne and increased facial hair growth would make them look and feel better wouldn't diet drugs be their logical choice. )
( I'm sure his comments will boost sales of creatine by those looking for free steroids )
As for anabolic steroids, he said the biggest danger there is “you don’t even know what exactly it is you’re taking.” He said a summary of 217 studies of the chemical makeup of illegal anabolic steroids shows that 30 percent did not contain what was on the label, and that 40 percent of the time the listed dosages were wrong.
Faught also addressed the question of who is using APEDs. He said of 1 million teenagers that admitted to using anabolic steroids, half were not even athletes.
“The fastest growing group of users is 14 and 15-year-old girls,” Faught said. “More than 1 in 20 high school girls already use anabolic steroids, and that number continues to increase.
“The No. 1 reason is to improve the way they look and feel about themselves.”
( Not sure why the average high school girl would think that acne and increased facial hair growth would make them look and feel better wouldn't diet drugs be their logical choice. )
Eight people face preliminary charges in relation to French doping raids.
Following Tuesday’s doping raids in Caen in north-west France, eight people face preliminary charges in relation to the police operation.
Those concerned include several amateur riders, a pharmacist, a doctor, bodybuilders and former riders. It is unknown if the latter competed in the professional ranks or not; initial reports on Tuesday stated that pro riders were amongst those taken into custody, but some subsequent reports have questioned this.
The doctor has been accused of writing false prescriptions, while the others have been accused of using doping products including EPO, growth hormone and anabolic agents.
The race was carried out by OCLAESP, the French Central office for the Fight against Environmental Damage and Public Health (Office Central de Lutte contre les Atteintes à l'Environnement et à la Santé Publique), and resulted in the suspects being jailed for 48 hours before their release on Thursday evening.
According to AP, the filing of preliminary charges in France occurs when the investigating magistrates have strong reason to suspect involvement in a crime. It enables the investigators to keep searching for evidence, thus building a case.
The OCLAESP is the same body which was investigating the Astana team after infusion kits and syringes were found during the 2009 Tour de France. Infusions and transfusions are banned by WADA. The OCLAESP also met US investigators recently at Interpol’s base in Lyon in connection with the investigation into claims of doping by the US Postal Services team.
This week’s raids are connected to an alleged doping ring in Normandy.
Those concerned include several amateur riders, a pharmacist, a doctor, bodybuilders and former riders. It is unknown if the latter competed in the professional ranks or not; initial reports on Tuesday stated that pro riders were amongst those taken into custody, but some subsequent reports have questioned this.
The doctor has been accused of writing false prescriptions, while the others have been accused of using doping products including EPO, growth hormone and anabolic agents.
The race was carried out by OCLAESP, the French Central office for the Fight against Environmental Damage and Public Health (Office Central de Lutte contre les Atteintes à l'Environnement et à la Santé Publique), and resulted in the suspects being jailed for 48 hours before their release on Thursday evening.
According to AP, the filing of preliminary charges in France occurs when the investigating magistrates have strong reason to suspect involvement in a crime. It enables the investigators to keep searching for evidence, thus building a case.
The OCLAESP is the same body which was investigating the Astana team after infusion kits and syringes were found during the 2009 Tour de France. Infusions and transfusions are banned by WADA. The OCLAESP also met US investigators recently at Interpol’s base in Lyon in connection with the investigation into claims of doping by the US Postal Services team.
This week’s raids are connected to an alleged doping ring in Normandy.
British internet pharmacy owner gets nine months suspended sentence.
An East London man was today sentenced to a total of nine months imprisonment suspended for 12 months for conspiracy, money laundering and numerous medicines offences.
Aziz Bharmal of Tower Hamlets pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import prescription only medicines as well as unlicensed generic drugs. He also pleaded guilty to importing a controlled Class C drug, Diazepam.
Other charges to which he entered a guilty plea included possession with intent to supply prescription only medicines, controlled Class C drugs and the unlicensed erectile dysfunction drug, Kamagra.
There was also one count of money laundering to which he pleaded guilty having laundered approximately £76,000 through his own bank account between 2007 and 2008.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) were notified of a website AngloPharmacy which was offering for sale a variety of unlicensed pharmacy and prescription only medicines.
The MHRA visited Bharmal’s residential address and seized huge quantities of the generic unlicensed erectile dysfunction drug, Kamagra, as well as prescription only medicines (POMs) such as apomorphine, zolpidem and fluoxetine.
Investigators also seized 24,640 tablets of a Class C controlled drug Diazepam.
MHRA Head of Operations Danny Lee-Frost said, “Mr Bharmal is neither a doctor nor a pharmacist in the UK and he is therefore supplying these medicines in breach of the Medicines Act.
“He is a criminal out to make a profit at the expense of vulnerable and ill people.”
Aziz Bharmal of Tower Hamlets pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import prescription only medicines as well as unlicensed generic drugs. He also pleaded guilty to importing a controlled Class C drug, Diazepam.
Other charges to which he entered a guilty plea included possession with intent to supply prescription only medicines, controlled Class C drugs and the unlicensed erectile dysfunction drug, Kamagra.
There was also one count of money laundering to which he pleaded guilty having laundered approximately £76,000 through his own bank account between 2007 and 2008.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) were notified of a website AngloPharmacy which was offering for sale a variety of unlicensed pharmacy and prescription only medicines.
The MHRA visited Bharmal’s residential address and seized huge quantities of the generic unlicensed erectile dysfunction drug, Kamagra, as well as prescription only medicines (POMs) such as apomorphine, zolpidem and fluoxetine.
Investigators also seized 24,640 tablets of a Class C controlled drug Diazepam.
MHRA Head of Operations Danny Lee-Frost said, “Mr Bharmal is neither a doctor nor a pharmacist in the UK and he is therefore supplying these medicines in breach of the Medicines Act.
“He is a criminal out to make a profit at the expense of vulnerable and ill people.”
Botswanan athlete stabs girlfriend in Australia blames steroids and gets just 200 hours community service ?
Roid rage was the trigger for a violent attack in which a University of Wollongong student repeatedly stabbed his fiancee with scissors, a court has heard.
Marshall Kuda Mahube used anabolic steroids heavily in the months leading up to the August 23 attack, despite knowing the potential risks involved, Wollongong Local Court heard yesterday.
Realising he was becoming "testy" and "excitable", the 23-year-old had stopped using the drug in early August but was still suffering the effects some three weeks later when he lashed out at his fiancee after he had a bad day.
During the violent outburst, Mahube hit his fiancee in the face and then stabbed her multiple times with scissors in the back and legs while the pair argued at his Keiraville flat.
Tensions between the pair had boiled over after the girl phoned him several times at the University of Wollongong to check on him, as he had been unfaithful in the past.
During the unprovoked attack Mahube allegedly called the girl a "fat bitch", then stabbed her twice in the back and four times in the legs with scissors, the court was told previously.
She grabbed a pillow to protect herself and escaped to a friend's house before she was taken to Wollongong Hospital where she underwent surgery on her shoulder.
Yesterday the court heard the 23-year-old has always been a keen athlete, successfully representing his home country of Botswana in the African Games before travelling to Australia to study.
However, the student revealed to the court his passion for being fit and strong took on a new meaning after he arrived in Australia, and he is now paying the price, having lost his relationship and suffered problems with his reproductive organs as a result of his drug use.
In a letter tendered to court, Mahube, who no longer lives in the region, apologised for his behaviour and the damage it had caused to his victim. He was supported in court by his parents, who had travelled from Botswana for the court case.
Sentencing Mahube, Magistrate Chris McRobert acknowledged he had no history of violence and was otherwise well respected by his peers.
However, Mr McRobert said it was troubling Mahube took the drugs, knowing how potentially harmful they could be. He subsequently ordered the student to perform 200 hours community service for his crime.
Outraged at the finding, Mahube's former fiancee screamed at him as she left the room. "I'll be scarred for life because of what you've done ... I hope you rot in hell," she said.
Marshall Kuda Mahube used anabolic steroids heavily in the months leading up to the August 23 attack, despite knowing the potential risks involved, Wollongong Local Court heard yesterday.
Realising he was becoming "testy" and "excitable", the 23-year-old had stopped using the drug in early August but was still suffering the effects some three weeks later when he lashed out at his fiancee after he had a bad day.
During the violent outburst, Mahube hit his fiancee in the face and then stabbed her multiple times with scissors in the back and legs while the pair argued at his Keiraville flat.
Tensions between the pair had boiled over after the girl phoned him several times at the University of Wollongong to check on him, as he had been unfaithful in the past.
During the unprovoked attack Mahube allegedly called the girl a "fat bitch", then stabbed her twice in the back and four times in the legs with scissors, the court was told previously.
She grabbed a pillow to protect herself and escaped to a friend's house before she was taken to Wollongong Hospital where she underwent surgery on her shoulder.
Yesterday the court heard the 23-year-old has always been a keen athlete, successfully representing his home country of Botswana in the African Games before travelling to Australia to study.
However, the student revealed to the court his passion for being fit and strong took on a new meaning after he arrived in Australia, and he is now paying the price, having lost his relationship and suffered problems with his reproductive organs as a result of his drug use.
In a letter tendered to court, Mahube, who no longer lives in the region, apologised for his behaviour and the damage it had caused to his victim. He was supported in court by his parents, who had travelled from Botswana for the court case.
Sentencing Mahube, Magistrate Chris McRobert acknowledged he had no history of violence and was otherwise well respected by his peers.
However, Mr McRobert said it was troubling Mahube took the drugs, knowing how potentially harmful they could be. He subsequently ordered the student to perform 200 hours community service for his crime.
Outraged at the finding, Mahube's former fiancee screamed at him as she left the room. "I'll be scarred for life because of what you've done ... I hope you rot in hell," she said.
Stem cell doping the next big thing ?
A happy accident may hold the key to healing muscle diseases and granting humans incredible physiques. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Washington discovered that stem cells injected into mouse muscles led to increased growth for the rest of the mouse’s life. Young mice with injured legs were given donor muscle stem cells from other young mice. Those injuries not only healed, but muscle mass increased 50% and muscle volume increased by an incredible 170%!
Performance tests show the muscles were twice as strong as normal, and still above average when you control for size. Two years later, about the lifetime of a mouse, the legs were still bigger and stronger than normal, much to the scientists surprise. The study was recently reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. I had a chance to speak with Bradley Olwin at UC Boulder to discuss his work and the possible applications in the future. He thinks that the muscle growth effect, if it could be reproduced in humans, may be a means to treat degenerative illnesses like Muscular Dystrophy. I think that this is another step towards super powered humans.
Future doping oral EPO booster drug appears to work.
Massive increases in natural erythropoietin (EPO) production occurred in dialysis patients as well as healthy volunteers given an investigational oral drug that promotes release of the red blood cell growth factor, according to results of a small trial.
The phase I trial, conducted among 12 dialysis patients and six healthy individuals, found that plasma EPO levels increased from 13- to 31-fold following a single dose of FG-2216, an orally active prolyl-hydroxylase inhibitor.
The phase I trial, conducted among 12 dialysis patients and six healthy individuals, found that plasma EPO levels increased from 13- to 31-fold following a single dose of FG-2216, an orally active prolyl-hydroxylase inhibitor.
Landis claims clenbuterol use is widespread in cycling.
The use of the banned muscle-building and weight-loss stimulant that Tour de France champion Alberto Contador tested positive for is widespread in cycling, according to disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis.
Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title because of doping, told German television on Monday that he knows riders take clenbuterol.
"I think that the risk of taking clenbuterol is higher now than it was earlier, when there weren't any training controls," Landis said. "There is still the risk of being caught even if it is rather small now, since the product has usually degraded when the control takes place.
"You don't know what risks people will take to win a race."
Contador, who won his third Tour title earlier this year, said his positive test for clenbuterol was the result of eating contaminated meat. He is facing a two-year ban and could be stripped of his victory at an upcoming hearing before the Spanish cycling federation.
Landis has previously alleged that Lance Armstrong and members of their former U.S. Postal team systematically doped. A grand jury in Los Angeles has been hearing evidence from an investigation for months in closed sessions.
Landis said Monday that cycling's governing body "protects some people and not others."
"That is the way they manipulate results and create stars," said Landis, who acknowledged his own doping history when he rode for U.S. Postal and Phonak. "It is easy to take anabolics, whether it is testosterone, growth hormone or something like that; and EPO and to make blood transfusions. You can easily do all of that without getting caught, and we routinely did it."
Armstrong, a seven-time Tour winner, has always denied doping.
Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title because of doping, told German television on Monday that he knows riders take clenbuterol.
"I think that the risk of taking clenbuterol is higher now than it was earlier, when there weren't any training controls," Landis said. "There is still the risk of being caught even if it is rather small now, since the product has usually degraded when the control takes place.
"You don't know what risks people will take to win a race."
Contador, who won his third Tour title earlier this year, said his positive test for clenbuterol was the result of eating contaminated meat. He is facing a two-year ban and could be stripped of his victory at an upcoming hearing before the Spanish cycling federation.
Landis has previously alleged that Lance Armstrong and members of their former U.S. Postal team systematically doped. A grand jury in Los Angeles has been hearing evidence from an investigation for months in closed sessions.
Landis said Monday that cycling's governing body "protects some people and not others."
"That is the way they manipulate results and create stars," said Landis, who acknowledged his own doping history when he rode for U.S. Postal and Phonak. "It is easy to take anabolics, whether it is testosterone, growth hormone or something like that; and EPO and to make blood transfusions. You can easily do all of that without getting caught, and we routinely did it."
Armstrong, a seven-time Tour winner, has always denied doping.
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