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.