Local professional athletes – who haven’t been charged -- are being probed in a far-reaching Warren County drug investigation that busted a clandestine anabolic steroids lab in Tennessee and led to indictments of 32 people, authorities said Tuesday.“There are at least two (professional athletes) we feel have an involvement in this operation,” said John Burke, commander of the Warren County Drug Task Force. “The investigation is ongoing and there may well be charges (against the athletes).”
Burke added that authorities had strong indication that high school students were also buying steroids but officials weren’t able to identify any of them. Officials didn’t name any schools.
The suspects who have been indicted hail from six Ohio counties plus Tennessee. They include a Liberty Township gym owner, a champion Cincinnati bodybuilder, a manager at LA Fitness in West Chester Township and an exotic dancer from Middletown.
“It was a tight network” that required deep undercover work to infiltrate, Burke said, noting the suspects knew each other from gyms and bodybuilding.
"Virtually everybody we dealt with had no criminal record," Burke said, which is atypical for drug investigations.
But now the suspects are facing potentially long prison terms, Burke said. About 10 of them face a first-degree felony charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, which carries a prison term of three to 10 years.
At a news conference Tuesday, James Deir, resident agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, characterized the operation this way: “It’s bar none unbelievable in the amount and the complexity of it.” He said the Warren County case is the largest steroid investigation he’s seen in many years.
A 53-year-old Lebanon man, Charlie Godsey, also would be facing charges but he died, authorities said.
During the investigation, Godsey told a detective that he had suffered a massive heart attack three years earlier, “and he (Godsey) attributed it to steroid use,” Burke said. “What’s even more astonishing is that he never stopped using steroids after that.”
Godsey died in April. Burke didn’t know the official ruling on Godsey’s cause of death. But when asked whether the death may have been steroid-related, Burke said, “It would be hard to believe that it wasn’t.”
Anabolic steroids help muscles grow bigger and stronger, but, as an article on ESPN.com says: “non-medical use of anabolic steroids is illegal and banned by most, if not all, major sports organizations. Still, some athletes persist in taking them, believing that these substances provide a competitive advantage. But ….anabolic steroids can cause serious physical and psychological side effects.”
Scandals over the use of performance-enhancing drugs has led to questions involving many well-known baseball players, including Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez.
The Warren County probe began in January 2010, when authorities received two separate complaints about steroid abuse at the Ralph J. Stolle Countryside YMCA in Lebanon, along with concerns that some of the drugs were being dealt to high school athletes, Burke said.
Mike Carroll, president of Countryside YMCA, said he immediately went to prosecutors when he caught wind that someone might be selling steroids there.
“Our desire is, of course, zero-tolerance and to try to get that element out of the Y and out of the community. So I think this was probably a significant step forward in trying to get that done,” Carroll said.
An undercover officer began making regular visits to the YMCA to seemingly work out in the weight room. He began purchasing steroids off the YMCA grounds from a person he met at the facility, Burke said.
Information led local authorities and federal ATF agents to a large seizure of steroids in Clinton County and more buys from a supplier who ran a lab in Montgomery County. Children were present at both those busts, Burke said.
At a news conference Tuesday, Burke told how one alleged dealer used a system of metal lockers at a Blue Ash office building to sell the steroids. He said Matthew Geraci, 37, a landscaping company owner from Sycamore Township, was behind that operation.
“The steroids would be put in your locker. You had a key to your locker. You went in the locker …opened it up, got your steroids out … put your money in and that’s how this operation started,” Burke said.
Authorities secretly kept watch on the lockers around the clock, he said.
The investigation came to a head June 21, when authorities served numerous search warrants at residences in Hamilton, Butler and Clermont counties and various bank accounts and safety deposit boxes, Burke said. Liquid steroids, steroid tablets and computer equipment containing drug ledgers, vehicles and U.S. currency were seized.
Two weeks later, again armed with search warrants, they seized $600,000 in liquid anabolic steroids and tablets and kilos of steroid powder at a clandestine steroid lab. Also seized were numerous assault rifles, semiautomatic pistols, shotguns, ammunitions and almost $300,000 in money and vehicles, Burke said.
Burke said Geraci, along with 18 others, admitted to their involvement in steroid trafficking in the region. Those indicted are from Hamilton, Butler, Warren County, Clermont, Clinton and Montgomery counties and Tennessee. Four people have already pleaded guilty.
Among those indicted in the sting were Joseph Lochard, 37, who runs Ultimate Fitness in Liberty Township; Michael S. Dorazio, 48, of Loveland, a manager at LA Fitness in West Chester; and Richard Blevins, a Milford resident and owner of Nirvana Nutrition in Symmes Township. In March, Blevins, 38, clinched the 2011 Overall “Mr. Cincinnati” title in a National Physique Committee contest. A website proclaims that contest “is going natural” next year.
Urban Active in Deerfield Township was the only gym where an undercover agent actually bought drugs at an exercise facility, Burke said. Joshua Haberstroh, 37, a West Chester bodybuilder, was arrested in those transactions.
In another twist, a 26-year-old exotic dancer, Tina Reifenberger of Middletown, was arrested in Casper, Wyo., on Tuesday, officials said. Reifenberger, who goes by the stage names, "Tinker Bell," "Diamond" and "Sasha," allegedly "fronted" some of the steroid deals, officials said.
Stephanie and Jason Sherrill, a Tennessee couple who allegedly operated the clandestine lab in Tullahoma and Manchester, Tenn., Burke said.
In late June, the Sherrills moved the lab from their home in Tullahoma to a trailer owned by Kenneth Freeman of Manchester.
Burke said the Sherrills were importing the steroid powder from China, mixing it with olive oil and packaging it in vials for distribution.
It was a lucrative business for the couple, he said.
“They were making four or five times what they had in each vial. It cost them $25 to make and they sold it for $85 to $125 a vial,” Burke said.
By Tuesday evening, all of the indicted suspects except one had been caught or surrendered, officials said. Only Cory McIntosh, 28, of Maineville, remained at large. He’s wanted on six counts of drug trafficking.
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