A 23-year-old Corinth man pleaded guilty Monday to possessing steroids.
Joshua Arnold, of 231 Main St., was arrested by Saratoga Springs police on April 20 and was found to be in possession of steroids. Police said he was using a motel room to manufacture the steroids.
Arnold pleaded guilty to fifth-degree attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony. He is expected to be sentenced to six months in Saratoga County Jail and five years probation.
Former State trooper admits selling steroids.
Three days before his scheduled trial, former Department of Public Safety Trooper Jeffery Jerman pleaded guilty Monday to three charges of selling steroids to a police informant from his patrol car in September 2009.
Jerman, who was fired over his arrest after nine years as a trooper, faces up to two years in jail on each count when sentenced March 11 by state District Court Judge Rex Emerson.
A Boerne resident, Jerman declined comment as he left the courtroom.
He went to trial here on the same charges in November, but a mistrial was declared before testimony could begin after a juror told the judge that she couldn't be impartial.
Jerman also faces a federal charge of conspiring to distribute steroids, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. Trial is set for Feb. 28 in that case in U.S. District Court in San Antonio.
Jerman, who was fired over his arrest after nine years as a trooper, faces up to two years in jail on each count when sentenced March 11 by state District Court Judge Rex Emerson.
A Boerne resident, Jerman declined comment as he left the courtroom.
He went to trial here on the same charges in November, but a mistrial was declared before testimony could begin after a juror told the judge that she couldn't be impartial.
Jerman also faces a federal charge of conspiring to distribute steroids, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. Trial is set for Feb. 28 in that case in U.S. District Court in San Antonio.
Belgian pleads guilty in US court to running fake selling online pharmacy.
Manuel Calvelo, 37, a citizen of Belgium, has pleaded guilty to charges filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas alleging he operated an Internet pharmacy that sold $1.4 million worth of misbranded and counterfeit drugs as well as controlled substances, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.
Calvelo, who was arrested in Costa Rica and extradited to Kansas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking. In his plea, he admitted that from 2005 to 2008 he and another man operated Web sites offering for sale without a prescription misbranded and counterfeit drugs to customers in the United States in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Calvelo’s Web sites offered for sale more than 40 prescription drugs including brand names Viagra, Depakote, Glucophage, Zoloft, Lipitor, Cialis, Xanax, Ativan and Klonopin. Controlled substances for sale from the Web site included Alprazolam (sold under the brand name Xanax), Lorazapam (Ativan) and Clonazepam (Klonopin). Under federal law, the crime of misbranding includes dispensing a prescription drug without a valid prescription from a licensed practitioner.
Calvelo’s Web sites included cheapestviagraworldwide.com, allcheapdrugs.com, allcheappills.com, cheapdrugspharmacy.com, allmedspharmacy.net, allnaturalpharmacy.com, horizonpharmacy.net, and trustgeneric.com.
Calvelo’s Web sites accepted orders from buyers in the United States and elsewhere. He operated a customer service call center in the Philippines and issued payments to employees through wire transfers via Western Union in the Philippines, Costa Rica and the United States. He also received payments from customers via credit card processors in the Netherlands.
From early in 2007 to early in 2008, Calvelo paid a company in Overland Park, Kan., for hosting his Web sites. In 2008, he transferred the hosting of some of the Web sites to a company in Columbus, Ohio.
In 2007, an undercover agent from the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations made purchases from Calvelo’s Web sites. The agent later contacted Calvelo through the Costa Rica Off-Shore Business Center posing as a pharmaceutical wholesaler in the United States seeking to establish an on-line pharmacy. In conversations with the agent via video conference calls on Skype, Calvelo admitted his role in the Internet pharmacy scheme and provided details of the operation.
“Americans must have confidence that drugs introduced into and distributed throughout the United States are genuine, FDA-compliant products,” said Patrick J. Holland, Special Agent in Charge of the FDA-Office of Criminal Investigations. “The FDA will aggressively pursue all foreign and domestic perpetrators of illegal drug distribution schemes.”
Sentencing is set for May 3. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the fraud charge and a maximum penalty of three years and a fine up to $250,000 on the conspiracy charge. In his plea agreement, Calvelo agreed to pay a money judgment of $1.4 million.
Co-defendant Jeffrey Westmoreland, 35, a citizen of Canada, is a fugitive.
Grissom commended the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation, John Claud of the Justice Department’s Office of Consumer Litigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask for their work on the case.
In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The indictments filed merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.
Calvelo, who was arrested in Costa Rica and extradited to Kansas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking. In his plea, he admitted that from 2005 to 2008 he and another man operated Web sites offering for sale without a prescription misbranded and counterfeit drugs to customers in the United States in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Calvelo’s Web sites offered for sale more than 40 prescription drugs including brand names Viagra, Depakote, Glucophage, Zoloft, Lipitor, Cialis, Xanax, Ativan and Klonopin. Controlled substances for sale from the Web site included Alprazolam (sold under the brand name Xanax), Lorazapam (Ativan) and Clonazepam (Klonopin). Under federal law, the crime of misbranding includes dispensing a prescription drug without a valid prescription from a licensed practitioner.
Calvelo’s Web sites included cheapestviagraworldwide.com, allcheapdrugs.com, allcheappills.com, cheapdrugspharmacy.com, allmedspharmacy.net, allnaturalpharmacy.com, horizonpharmacy.net, and trustgeneric.com.
Calvelo’s Web sites accepted orders from buyers in the United States and elsewhere. He operated a customer service call center in the Philippines and issued payments to employees through wire transfers via Western Union in the Philippines, Costa Rica and the United States. He also received payments from customers via credit card processors in the Netherlands.
From early in 2007 to early in 2008, Calvelo paid a company in Overland Park, Kan., for hosting his Web sites. In 2008, he transferred the hosting of some of the Web sites to a company in Columbus, Ohio.
In 2007, an undercover agent from the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations made purchases from Calvelo’s Web sites. The agent later contacted Calvelo through the Costa Rica Off-Shore Business Center posing as a pharmaceutical wholesaler in the United States seeking to establish an on-line pharmacy. In conversations with the agent via video conference calls on Skype, Calvelo admitted his role in the Internet pharmacy scheme and provided details of the operation.
“Americans must have confidence that drugs introduced into and distributed throughout the United States are genuine, FDA-compliant products,” said Patrick J. Holland, Special Agent in Charge of the FDA-Office of Criminal Investigations. “The FDA will aggressively pursue all foreign and domestic perpetrators of illegal drug distribution schemes.”
Sentencing is set for May 3. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the fraud charge and a maximum penalty of three years and a fine up to $250,000 on the conspiracy charge. In his plea agreement, Calvelo agreed to pay a money judgment of $1.4 million.
Co-defendant Jeffrey Westmoreland, 35, a citizen of Canada, is a fugitive.
Grissom commended the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation, John Claud of the Justice Department’s Office of Consumer Litigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask for their work on the case.
In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The indictments filed merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.
Irish bodybuilder and gym owner survives gangland hit.
A club promoter and bodybuilder was shot five times last night in Dublin but is holding on to life in hospital.
The man, named by the Irish Daily Star and the Irish Independent this morning as Sean Enright, 30, from Clonsilla was shot outside his girlfriend’s house at Rusheeny, Clonsilla just after 9pm.
Enright was attacked by a man wielding a handgun as he pulled up in a blue Volkwagen Golf at Rusheeny Manor. The car’s window on the driver’s side and the windscreen bear bulletholes from the attack.
One witness told the Independent that Enright managed to walk over to the ambulance that was called to the scene and climbed into it. His condition in hospital is being described as stable.
Michael O’Toole in the Star says that Enright was hit five times, in the arm, leg and chest, but that nine shots were fired at him in total.
Sean Enright runs Universal Gym in Ballycoolin, Dublin 11 and is a champion amateur body builder. He is also the promoter for the Escapefest dance music festival at Fairyhouse in Meath.
The man, named by the Irish Daily Star and the Irish Independent this morning as Sean Enright, 30, from Clonsilla was shot outside his girlfriend’s house at Rusheeny, Clonsilla just after 9pm.
Enright was attacked by a man wielding a handgun as he pulled up in a blue Volkwagen Golf at Rusheeny Manor. The car’s window on the driver’s side and the windscreen bear bulletholes from the attack.
One witness told the Independent that Enright managed to walk over to the ambulance that was called to the scene and climbed into it. His condition in hospital is being described as stable.
Michael O’Toole in the Star says that Enright was hit five times, in the arm, leg and chest, but that nine shots were fired at him in total.
Sean Enright runs Universal Gym in Ballycoolin, Dublin 11 and is a champion amateur body builder. He is also the promoter for the Escapefest dance music festival at Fairyhouse in Meath.
Australian weightlifter in court on steroid counts.
A weightlifting champ known as “Mr Bench” is facing drug charges.
Angelo Galati, 42, of Bentleigh East, appeared at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on January 14 after being charged with possessing anabolic steroids.
Galati has five Mr Australia titles to his name and is a world record bench presser.
Police prosecutor Leading Sen-Constable Adrian Hale told the court Galati’s house was raided in November. He said a 10ml vial of testosterone was allegedly found in socks stuffed in a bedside drawer.
“A drugs warrant was issued and the house searched,” Sen-Constable Hale said.
“He said he had previously used it to raise his testosterone levels and forgot about it.”
Defence lawyer George Henderson said Galati didn’t know anything about the vial and that it was likely to have been missed in a previous police search.
He will appear again in court on February 11 for the charge.
Angelo Galati, 42, of Bentleigh East, appeared at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on January 14 after being charged with possessing anabolic steroids.
Galati has five Mr Australia titles to his name and is a world record bench presser.
Police prosecutor Leading Sen-Constable Adrian Hale told the court Galati’s house was raided in November. He said a 10ml vial of testosterone was allegedly found in socks stuffed in a bedside drawer.
“A drugs warrant was issued and the house searched,” Sen-Constable Hale said.
“He said he had previously used it to raise his testosterone levels and forgot about it.”
Defence lawyer George Henderson said Galati didn’t know anything about the vial and that it was likely to have been missed in a previous police search.
He will appear again in court on February 11 for the charge.
Extract from busted steroid clinics sales rep's diary.
After the center was raided in 2007, the clinic's top two executives and a physician who worked there pleaded guilty to drug-related felonies. The Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center went out of business.
Among the records was a particularly detailed treatment diary for one patient – a 37 year-old paramedic from Arizona.
The diary, written by a clinic salesman and never before published, illustrates how the clinic pushed a customer to buy more banned drugs, and how it also got him to use other drugs to tamp down side effects.
The diary follows, edited to correct spelling errors and with explanatory information inserted in parenthesis. Years aren’t noted: It’s some time before the 2007 raid.
37 years old
address- (Pima County, Az.)
Paramedic.
Sex drive is down, wants to bring it up.
Friend gave him a shot of (testosterone) cypionate (an injectable steroid popular with bodybuilders)
He was very happy with results.
Wants a three-month cycle of cypionate.
He has a hard time in gym, wants to improve in gym… He likes fishing & bow hunting and said he has friends that are coming aboard too (i.e., that are interested in steroids). Look for an order from him.
11/07. (He) got order (and) is four weeks into it. (He) has aeration around his nipples (an early sign of the steroid side effect gynecomastia, or protruding nipples) so we put him on Nolvadex (an anti-estrogen used in treating breast cancer).
12/06. Talked to his wife. She said he was bummed out because he got the flu & he could not work out but I just wished them a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
1/11. Will order HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone used to treat undescended testicles in young men; body builders think it prevents their testicles from atrophying) & DECA (Deca-durabolin, another body builder’s steroid.)
1/28. Order 2 deca & 3 Hcg $850.00
5/1. 1 Deca $250.00 & 1 Cyp 175.00 + shipping $25.00 = $450.00
5/24. His wife wants to do testosterone & he asked about Winnie (the steroid Winstrol).
He ordered testosterone pills for his wife $380.00
5/28. Called to see how he is doing. He just ordered one test(osterone) cyp(ionate), 1 clomid (a female fertility drug used to restart a man’s natural testosterone production after a cycle of steroids)
7/16. His wife didn't like the sublingual pills. She is thinking about deca.
1/14. He did a 5 week cycle. He put on 5 pounds he said it was nothing great. He said he wants to wait for 4-6 months before he does anything.
2/17. …He just ordered 1 deca, 1 (testosterone) enathate (another injectable steroid).
1/19. Walked him through cycle. He is starting to see testosterone working.
3/21. He just order 1 enathate, 1 deca, 2 (testosterone propionate, an injectable steroid) 4/19.
5/11. He is doing ok. He sold his house he was a little sad about that. His girl friend is reading about hgh (human growth hormone) & is interested in it for weight loss & anti-aging.
6/7. He needs to order off cycle. He just order 1 hcg, 1 clomid.
6/20. Call to see how he is doing? He is doing good.
Among the records was a particularly detailed treatment diary for one patient – a 37 year-old paramedic from Arizona.
The diary, written by a clinic salesman and never before published, illustrates how the clinic pushed a customer to buy more banned drugs, and how it also got him to use other drugs to tamp down side effects.
The diary follows, edited to correct spelling errors and with explanatory information inserted in parenthesis. Years aren’t noted: It’s some time before the 2007 raid.
37 years old
address- (Pima County, Az.)
Paramedic.
Sex drive is down, wants to bring it up.
Friend gave him a shot of (testosterone) cypionate (an injectable steroid popular with bodybuilders)
He was very happy with results.
Wants a three-month cycle of cypionate.
He has a hard time in gym, wants to improve in gym… He likes fishing & bow hunting and said he has friends that are coming aboard too (i.e., that are interested in steroids). Look for an order from him.
11/07. (He) got order (and) is four weeks into it. (He) has aeration around his nipples (an early sign of the steroid side effect gynecomastia, or protruding nipples) so we put him on Nolvadex (an anti-estrogen used in treating breast cancer).
12/06. Talked to his wife. She said he was bummed out because he got the flu & he could not work out but I just wished them a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
1/11. Will order HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone used to treat undescended testicles in young men; body builders think it prevents their testicles from atrophying) & DECA (Deca-durabolin, another body builder’s steroid.)
1/28. Order 2 deca & 3 Hcg $850.00
5/1. 1 Deca $250.00 & 1 Cyp 175.00 + shipping $25.00 = $450.00
5/24. His wife wants to do testosterone & he asked about Winnie (the steroid Winstrol).
He ordered testosterone pills for his wife $380.00
5/28. Called to see how he is doing. He just ordered one test(osterone) cyp(ionate), 1 clomid (a female fertility drug used to restart a man’s natural testosterone production after a cycle of steroids)
7/16. His wife didn't like the sublingual pills. She is thinking about deca.
1/14. He did a 5 week cycle. He put on 5 pounds he said it was nothing great. He said he wants to wait for 4-6 months before he does anything.
2/17. …He just ordered 1 deca, 1 (testosterone) enathate (another injectable steroid).
1/19. Walked him through cycle. He is starting to see testosterone working.
3/21. He just order 1 enathate, 1 deca, 2 (testosterone propionate, an injectable steroid) 4/19.
5/11. He is doing ok. He sold his house he was a little sad about that. His girl friend is reading about hgh (human growth hormone) & is interested in it for weight loss & anti-aging.
6/7. He needs to order off cycle. He just order 1 hcg, 1 clomid.
6/20. Call to see how he is doing? He is doing good.
Indian weightlifters keep getting caught doping.
The drug spectre is back to haunt Indian weightlifting. Five positive cases at the National Youth Championships held at Yamunanagar, Haryana this month have prompted the National Anti-Doping Agency to express its concern to the Weightlifting Federation of India and ask the body to set its house in order.
The five weightlifters, who NADA refused to identify, have been issued provisional suspensions and the first notice. The 'B' samples are yet to be tested. Four of the lot tested positive for steroids and the other a stimulant.
This was the second major infringement in two months, with eight weightlifters testing positive at the all India Railway championship in December last year. NADA found that steroids abuse was rampant in these cases too. "We are shocked at the sudden spurt in positive dope cases in such a short span of time," NADA director general Rahul Bhatnagar told TOI. "We have written to WFI, saying the increasing number of dope cases is worrisome and that they have to put an end to the menace."
WFI secretary general Sahdev Yadav admitted he was dismayed by the turn of events. "We will take strict action against the offenders. We will ban the weightlifter, coach and the state that he comes from, if found guilty."
WFI had to borrow Rs 1.75 crore last year to pay a dope fine to its international body so that its lifters could take part in the Commonwealth Games. International Weightlifting Federation had slapped a $5-lakh fine on WFI after six lifters flunked dope tests conducted by WADA last year.
Days after WFI paid the fine, Manchester Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sanamacha Chanu (53kg) failed a NADA test for banned stimulant methylehexameamine.
The five weightlifters, who NADA refused to identify, have been issued provisional suspensions and the first notice. The 'B' samples are yet to be tested. Four of the lot tested positive for steroids and the other a stimulant.
This was the second major infringement in two months, with eight weightlifters testing positive at the all India Railway championship in December last year. NADA found that steroids abuse was rampant in these cases too. "We are shocked at the sudden spurt in positive dope cases in such a short span of time," NADA director general Rahul Bhatnagar told TOI. "We have written to WFI, saying the increasing number of dope cases is worrisome and that they have to put an end to the menace."
WFI secretary general Sahdev Yadav admitted he was dismayed by the turn of events. "We will take strict action against the offenders. We will ban the weightlifter, coach and the state that he comes from, if found guilty."
WFI had to borrow Rs 1.75 crore last year to pay a dope fine to its international body so that its lifters could take part in the Commonwealth Games. International Weightlifting Federation had slapped a $5-lakh fine on WFI after six lifters flunked dope tests conducted by WADA last year.
Days after WFI paid the fine, Manchester Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sanamacha Chanu (53kg) failed a NADA test for banned stimulant methylehexameamine.
New silly study claims 56% of polled HGH users were ex-narcotic addicts.
Illicit use of human growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor I is common among male weightlifters, and use in this population is often associated with polysubstance abuse involving both performance-enhancing and classical drugs, researchers found.
To augment conflicting data on GH abuse, researchers compared three groups of men: those reporting lifetime use of GH or IGF-I; those reporting anabolic-androgenic steroid use but no GH or IGF-I; and those reporting no use.
Of the 231 men polled for the study, 43% reported lifetime steroid use, with 26 men reporting lifetime GH use and one reporting IGF-I use but no GH use. These 27 men had tried GH or IGF-I after steroids, the researchers said. Eighty-one percent also reported current or past dependence on steroids.
Long-term steroid use was more common among those who used GH or IGF-I. The median total lifetime duration was 173 weeks compared with 24 weeks among steroid users who had not tried either substance.
At 56%, the proportion of GH or IGF-I users who described past dependence on at least one drug other than alcohol or cannabis was highest of those in all three groups, according to the researchers. Many reported abusing opiates, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, cocaine and stimulants.
“Although [GH] does not produce a ‘reward’ of acute intoxication in the manner of classical dependence-inducing drugs such as alcohol or opioids, the possibility remains that its metabolic effects, or perhaps even subtle hedonic effects, might themselves be sufficiently reinforcing to induce a dependence syndrome in some individuals,” the researchers wrote.
According to other results, men using GH or IGF-I were considerably more muscular and had longer histories of weightlifting compared with nonusers. In addition, only 19% had college degrees and most were generally less educated, although they were usually older than men in the other two groups.
Declining prices and greater availability of GH, IGF-I and other performance-enhancing drugs in future years may result in an even greater number of users than suggested in this study, who use these drugs in higher doses and for longer periods.
“The long-term risks of high-dose [GH] use are little studied, but available evidence suggests that long-term high-dose [GH] may have serious medical consequences, including cardiac, endocrine and respiratory effects, as well as increased risk for certain cancers,” Brian P. Brennan, MD, MSc, of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., and Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a press release. “Our findings suggest that mounting illicit [GH] abuse may represent a dangerous new form of drug abuse with potentially severe public health consequences.”
To augment conflicting data on GH abuse, researchers compared three groups of men: those reporting lifetime use of GH or IGF-I; those reporting anabolic-androgenic steroid use but no GH or IGF-I; and those reporting no use.
Of the 231 men polled for the study, 43% reported lifetime steroid use, with 26 men reporting lifetime GH use and one reporting IGF-I use but no GH use. These 27 men had tried GH or IGF-I after steroids, the researchers said. Eighty-one percent also reported current or past dependence on steroids.
Long-term steroid use was more common among those who used GH or IGF-I. The median total lifetime duration was 173 weeks compared with 24 weeks among steroid users who had not tried either substance.
At 56%, the proportion of GH or IGF-I users who described past dependence on at least one drug other than alcohol or cannabis was highest of those in all three groups, according to the researchers. Many reported abusing opiates, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, cocaine and stimulants.
“Although [GH] does not produce a ‘reward’ of acute intoxication in the manner of classical dependence-inducing drugs such as alcohol or opioids, the possibility remains that its metabolic effects, or perhaps even subtle hedonic effects, might themselves be sufficiently reinforcing to induce a dependence syndrome in some individuals,” the researchers wrote.
According to other results, men using GH or IGF-I were considerably more muscular and had longer histories of weightlifting compared with nonusers. In addition, only 19% had college degrees and most were generally less educated, although they were usually older than men in the other two groups.
Declining prices and greater availability of GH, IGF-I and other performance-enhancing drugs in future years may result in an even greater number of users than suggested in this study, who use these drugs in higher doses and for longer periods.
“The long-term risks of high-dose [GH] use are little studied, but available evidence suggests that long-term high-dose [GH] may have serious medical consequences, including cardiac, endocrine and respiratory effects, as well as increased risk for certain cancers,” Brian P. Brennan, MD, MSc, of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., and Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a press release. “Our findings suggest that mounting illicit [GH] abuse may represent a dangerous new form of drug abuse with potentially severe public health consequences.”
British man given 41 months for his part in steroid gang.
A businessman has been jailed for his involvement in a multi-million-pound international operation illegally importing human growth hormones and steroids from the Far East.
When police arrested Andrew Fletcher at his Bradford home in 2008 they found £94,000 in cash hidden around the house, some in a shoebox in a freezer.
Post that arrived while officers were still searching the property included an envelope containing a further £4,000 in cash.
Michael Collins, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday officers also seized £12,000 worth of the drugs testosterone, nandrolone and clenbuterol.
Inquiries revealed that between October 2006 and 2008 Fletcher had sent £209,000 abroad and had visited China with Nicholas Aristotelous, the main conspirator behind two importation enterprises estimated to have had a £5m turnover over five years.
Mr Collins told the court it appeared Fletcher had been involved with Aristotelous at some time but later had a fall out with him and went his own way, and claimed at one stage to have had sales of 1,000 boxes a month of the human growth hormone nomatropin.
Fletcher, 41, of Penny Hill Drive, Bradford, admitted conspiring to contravene customs, possession and transfer of criminal property. He was jailed for a total of 41 months after also admitting failing to attend court in December when others involved in the conspiracy were sentenced.
Judge Christopher Batty told him: "You knew the problems of what you were involved with, bringing unlicensed drugs into this country which were simply being flooded on to a market which was completely unregulated.
"You knew the non-prescribed use of these drugs to some people could cause significant health problems."
The judge said he had heard from a doctor that could include heart attacks, blood disorders, embolisms and blindness.
"You batted on regardless because you wanted the money and there were significant trappings as far as you were concerned."
He said the fact Fletcher had nearly £100,000 in cash at his home at the time of the arrest "tells us clearly what the pickings were from this enterprise".
Ian Harris, representing Fletcher, said his client's involvement was on a much smaller scale than Aristotelous and ended with his arrest in 2008 unlike Aristotelous who had continued to trade even after his first arrest.
He said Fletcher was not in the best of health. He had got into using steroids when he was a body builder but had lost two stone in weight since suffering an injury to his shoulder and was due to have a scan on that on top of other medical problems.
Aristotelous, 40, of Roker Lane, Pudsey, Leeds, was jailed for seven years.
When police arrested Andrew Fletcher at his Bradford home in 2008 they found £94,000 in cash hidden around the house, some in a shoebox in a freezer.
Post that arrived while officers were still searching the property included an envelope containing a further £4,000 in cash.
Michael Collins, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday officers also seized £12,000 worth of the drugs testosterone, nandrolone and clenbuterol.
Inquiries revealed that between October 2006 and 2008 Fletcher had sent £209,000 abroad and had visited China with Nicholas Aristotelous, the main conspirator behind two importation enterprises estimated to have had a £5m turnover over five years.
Mr Collins told the court it appeared Fletcher had been involved with Aristotelous at some time but later had a fall out with him and went his own way, and claimed at one stage to have had sales of 1,000 boxes a month of the human growth hormone nomatropin.
Fletcher, 41, of Penny Hill Drive, Bradford, admitted conspiring to contravene customs, possession and transfer of criminal property. He was jailed for a total of 41 months after also admitting failing to attend court in December when others involved in the conspiracy were sentenced.
Judge Christopher Batty told him: "You knew the problems of what you were involved with, bringing unlicensed drugs into this country which were simply being flooded on to a market which was completely unregulated.
"You knew the non-prescribed use of these drugs to some people could cause significant health problems."
The judge said he had heard from a doctor that could include heart attacks, blood disorders, embolisms and blindness.
"You batted on regardless because you wanted the money and there were significant trappings as far as you were concerned."
He said the fact Fletcher had nearly £100,000 in cash at his home at the time of the arrest "tells us clearly what the pickings were from this enterprise".
Ian Harris, representing Fletcher, said his client's involvement was on a much smaller scale than Aristotelous and ended with his arrest in 2008 unlike Aristotelous who had continued to trade even after his first arrest.
He said Fletcher was not in the best of health. He had got into using steroids when he was a body builder but had lost two stone in weight since suffering an injury to his shoulder and was due to have a scan on that on top of other medical problems.
Aristotelous, 40, of Roker Lane, Pudsey, Leeds, was jailed for seven years.
British urologists claim huge increase in numbers of infertile men due to their steroid use.
Growing numbers of men are becoming infertile because they take anabolic steroids in their quest for a muscular body, doctors have warned.
Urologists are seeing more and more men whose difficulty in becoming a father is linked to consumption of the muscle-boosting drugs.
Steve Payne, a consultant urologist at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and a council member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, said: "Many fit young men who believe they are at the peak of physical perfection don't believe it could be their fault when their wives or girlfriends find it difficult to become pregnant.
"They are insulted when it is suggested that they undergo a sperm test, and horrified when the results of those tests show an absence of sperm in the sample."
Such men are then referred to a urologist, and undergo a blood test. If they have been using steroids, they often have what Payne calls deranged levels of sex hormones.
Men who regularly go to the gym should avoid taking steroids to bulk up, Payne added.
Acne, aggression and an unexplained, orangey skin tone akin to a tan are also associated with use of steroids.
Dr Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University, warned: "It is a very real risk that men who take anabolic steroids will become infertile. It's almost certain that they [the steroids] will have an effect of some sort on their fertility and, in the worst-case scenario, that sperm production will stop altogether.
"These patients walk through the door looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his younger days. They are having fertility problems, and it suddenly becomes obvious where the problem may lie."
Some men who stop taking steroids never regain their reproductive capacity and for others it takes years for normal sperm production to resume, Pacey added.
Urologists are seeing more and more men whose difficulty in becoming a father is linked to consumption of the muscle-boosting drugs.
Steve Payne, a consultant urologist at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and a council member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, said: "Many fit young men who believe they are at the peak of physical perfection don't believe it could be their fault when their wives or girlfriends find it difficult to become pregnant.
"They are insulted when it is suggested that they undergo a sperm test, and horrified when the results of those tests show an absence of sperm in the sample."
Such men are then referred to a urologist, and undergo a blood test. If they have been using steroids, they often have what Payne calls deranged levels of sex hormones.
Men who regularly go to the gym should avoid taking steroids to bulk up, Payne added.
Acne, aggression and an unexplained, orangey skin tone akin to a tan are also associated with use of steroids.
Dr Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University, warned: "It is a very real risk that men who take anabolic steroids will become infertile. It's almost certain that they [the steroids] will have an effect of some sort on their fertility and, in the worst-case scenario, that sperm production will stop altogether.
"These patients walk through the door looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his younger days. They are having fertility problems, and it suddenly becomes obvious where the problem may lie."
Some men who stop taking steroids never regain their reproductive capacity and for others it takes years for normal sperm production to resume, Pacey added.
British bodybuilder gets suspended sentence for supplying steroid tablets.
Police officers who raided Darren Casey’s home in Oulton Road, Lowestoft, found nearly 4,000 steroid tablets on a kitchen counter, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Casey, 41, a competitive body-builder himself, admitted possessing methandienone with intent to supply in October 2008 and was given a seven-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work in the community.
Sentencing him on Monday, Judge Rupert Overbury said it was not an offence to possess or import steroid drugs for personal use but it was an offence to supply them to other people.
He accepted that a proportion of the steroids found at Casey’s home were for his own use but said a large proportion were for supply to other bodybuilders.
He described Casey, who runs a tattoo shop in Norwich, as a “relatively small-scale supplier to friends and acquaintances”.
Richard Potts, prosecuting, told the court that two packages containing 1981 and 1996 tablets were found on a kitchen counter and police also discovered a large amount of cash as well as a “price list”.
Mr Potts said Casey had initially claimed the steroids were six months’ supply for his own use.
Will Carter, for Casey, said his client had been a competitive body-builder for a number of years and used steroids but accepted that from time to time he would supply like-minded individuals involved in the sport.
He said Casey was a married man with two children.
Casey, 41, a competitive body-builder himself, admitted possessing methandienone with intent to supply in October 2008 and was given a seven-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work in the community.
Sentencing him on Monday, Judge Rupert Overbury said it was not an offence to possess or import steroid drugs for personal use but it was an offence to supply them to other people.
He accepted that a proportion of the steroids found at Casey’s home were for his own use but said a large proportion were for supply to other bodybuilders.
He described Casey, who runs a tattoo shop in Norwich, as a “relatively small-scale supplier to friends and acquaintances”.
Richard Potts, prosecuting, told the court that two packages containing 1981 and 1996 tablets were found on a kitchen counter and police also discovered a large amount of cash as well as a “price list”.
Mr Potts said Casey had initially claimed the steroids were six months’ supply for his own use.
Will Carter, for Casey, said his client had been a competitive body-builder for a number of years and used steroids but accepted that from time to time he would supply like-minded individuals involved in the sport.
He said Casey was a married man with two children.
The legendary Jack LaLanne passed away on Sunday :-(
Sad news to start the day: Jack LaLanne, who focused on health and fitness every day of his life, has succumbed to respiratory failure due to pneumonia.
The amazing iron-pumper, who preached strength training and healthy eating long before it was fashionable, died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast. He was 96.
The amazing iron-pumper, who preached strength training and healthy eating long before it was fashionable, died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast. He was 96.
Two doping failures at 2010 Asian Games
Two more doping failures at the Guangzhou Asian Games were announced by the Olympic Council of Asia on Monday, involving a silver medallist from Qatar and an athlete from the Palestinian territories.
It brings to four the total number of cheats caught at the multi-sport extravaganza that was held in China last November, the others being an Uzbek wrestler and an Uzbek judoka.
Ahmed Dheeb of Qatar, who won silver in the men's discus, tested positive for exogenous testosterone metabolites, descibed by the OCA as 'indicative of a prohibited substance under anabolic agents'.
Palestinian Awajna Abdalnasser took part in the men's 800 metres and tested positive for norandrosterone, another anabolic agent.
Both were disqualified, with Dheeb stripped of his medal, the OCA said.
'The OCA would like to emphasise its stance on combating doping in sport and will continue to work hard in collaboration with all member NOCs to consolidate the fundamentals of clean and true sport among our athletes,' it said.
It brings to four the total number of cheats caught at the multi-sport extravaganza that was held in China last November, the others being an Uzbek wrestler and an Uzbek judoka.
Ahmed Dheeb of Qatar, who won silver in the men's discus, tested positive for exogenous testosterone metabolites, descibed by the OCA as 'indicative of a prohibited substance under anabolic agents'.
Palestinian Awajna Abdalnasser took part in the men's 800 metres and tested positive for norandrosterone, another anabolic agent.
Both were disqualified, with Dheeb stripped of his medal, the OCA said.
'The OCA would like to emphasise its stance on combating doping in sport and will continue to work hard in collaboration with all member NOCs to consolidate the fundamentals of clean and true sport among our athletes,' it said.
Affidavit offers new details in cop's arrest for steroids.
On the day an off-duty Stockton police officer was arrested for suspected trafficking in controlled steroids, he met twice, in parking lots in Tracy and Lathrop, with a Brentwood man along with whom he has been charged, according to a search warrant affidavit.
The officer, 27-year-old Darrin Fagundes, was under surveillance by Stockton Police Department vice detectives, who reported that at the second meeting, in the parking lot of Lathrop's Target, Fagundes emerged from a Ford Mustang owned by Anthony Scott Kubena carrying a "light-colored cylindrical object." He climbed back into his vehicle, a black 2006 Hummer, and was detained by police before he left.
In the cylinder, according to the affidavit, were two clear plastic bags, each containing four clear glass vials with red caps. The vials were separately labeled testosterone and nandrolone decanoate, steroids used together and with other steroids to achieve rapid muscle growth. Both are controlled substances in the United States, requiring prescriptions from physicians.
That was Jan. 13, and Fagundes and Kubena, 38, had already been under surveillance for at least one month. They were seen on Dec. 28 meeting outside Delta Valley Athletic Club in Brentwood for what detectives believed was a drug transaction. The detectives obtained a search warrant for Kubena's Brentwood home on Jan. 7 and were following him on Jan. 13 with the intention of serving it when they saw him meet Fagundes first in Tracy, about 2 p.m. in a parking lot on Naglee Road, and then in Lathrop about 3:28 p.m.
After the arrests, the detectives obtained a search warrant for Fagundes' Tracy home, where they seized firearms, ammunition, computers, a cell phone and a Stockton Police Department badge.
Fagundes, a Stockton police officer since 2007, has been on paid administrative leave since his arrest, while both internal and criminal investigations proceed.
Deputy District Attorney Todd Turner, who is prosecuting the case, said both Fagundes and Kubena, who has worked as a bouncer at a Stockton club, have been charged not only with possession of illegal steroids for personal use, but also with selling them to others.
Turner said he would not say how the investigation started, who was its original focus, how it led to Fagundes or when it started, saying it was too early in the investigation to comment. He also would not say whether other Stockton police officers might be implicated.
"I can't comment on that," he said.
Chief Blair Ulring also declined to comment, saying through a spokesman that it would be premature to do so, given the early stage of investigation.
The steroids Fagundes allegedly had in his possession are both found naturally in the human body and have medical uses. According to the National Institutes of Health, nandrolone decanoate, known colloquially as "deca," is used to treat anemia from renal failure. Its side effects in men can include erectile dysfunction, abnormal growth of breast tissue and testicular atrophy. In women, among other effects, it can cause baldness, deepen the voice and induce the growth of terminal body hair where it usually grows only on men. Many side effects of testosterone overlap with those of nandrolone decanoate.
Reached by phone, Fagundes declined to comment.
His attorney could not be reached for comment.
The officer, 27-year-old Darrin Fagundes, was under surveillance by Stockton Police Department vice detectives, who reported that at the second meeting, in the parking lot of Lathrop's Target, Fagundes emerged from a Ford Mustang owned by Anthony Scott Kubena carrying a "light-colored cylindrical object." He climbed back into his vehicle, a black 2006 Hummer, and was detained by police before he left.
In the cylinder, according to the affidavit, were two clear plastic bags, each containing four clear glass vials with red caps. The vials were separately labeled testosterone and nandrolone decanoate, steroids used together and with other steroids to achieve rapid muscle growth. Both are controlled substances in the United States, requiring prescriptions from physicians.
That was Jan. 13, and Fagundes and Kubena, 38, had already been under surveillance for at least one month. They were seen on Dec. 28 meeting outside Delta Valley Athletic Club in Brentwood for what detectives believed was a drug transaction. The detectives obtained a search warrant for Kubena's Brentwood home on Jan. 7 and were following him on Jan. 13 with the intention of serving it when they saw him meet Fagundes first in Tracy, about 2 p.m. in a parking lot on Naglee Road, and then in Lathrop about 3:28 p.m.
After the arrests, the detectives obtained a search warrant for Fagundes' Tracy home, where they seized firearms, ammunition, computers, a cell phone and a Stockton Police Department badge.
Fagundes, a Stockton police officer since 2007, has been on paid administrative leave since his arrest, while both internal and criminal investigations proceed.
Deputy District Attorney Todd Turner, who is prosecuting the case, said both Fagundes and Kubena, who has worked as a bouncer at a Stockton club, have been charged not only with possession of illegal steroids for personal use, but also with selling them to others.
Turner said he would not say how the investigation started, who was its original focus, how it led to Fagundes or when it started, saying it was too early in the investigation to comment. He also would not say whether other Stockton police officers might be implicated.
"I can't comment on that," he said.
Chief Blair Ulring also declined to comment, saying through a spokesman that it would be premature to do so, given the early stage of investigation.
The steroids Fagundes allegedly had in his possession are both found naturally in the human body and have medical uses. According to the National Institutes of Health, nandrolone decanoate, known colloquially as "deca," is used to treat anemia from renal failure. Its side effects in men can include erectile dysfunction, abnormal growth of breast tissue and testicular atrophy. In women, among other effects, it can cause baldness, deepen the voice and induce the growth of terminal body hair where it usually grows only on men. Many side effects of testosterone overlap with those of nandrolone decanoate.
Reached by phone, Fagundes declined to comment.
His attorney could not be reached for comment.
British bodybuilder on trial for pharmacy robbery uses steroid addiction defense.
A BODYBUILDER smashed his way into a chemists and stole £2,000 worth of goods to feed his addiction – to steroids.
Muscle-bound Scott Gilbert was trapped by forensic cops who traced blood left at the scene after he broke down the door of Superdrug in Stone, Staffordshire, in December.
At Cannock Court on Friday, magistrates offered the landscape gardener, from Stoke-on-Trent, expert help in beating his three year steroid obsession.
They adjourned sentence until he has undergone a drug rehabilitation assessment, where experts will decide how best to rid him of his rare addiction.
The 23-year-old, his face tattooed, admitted burglary and a separate motoring offence. Defence solicitor Bobby Bell said: “He does not have an addiction to the usual drugs, such as heroin or cocaine.
“He has a three-year addiction to steroids, which has cost him in the region of £7,000.
“He has been out of trouble for three years, so he has not been regularly committing offences to feed this addiction. Work had dried-up and he could no longer feed this drug use through employment.”
Magistrates heard repairs and replacing stolen stock following the Superdrug raid cost £2,673.
Gilbert, who was granted conditional bail, will be sentenced on Wednesday.
Muscle-bound Scott Gilbert was trapped by forensic cops who traced blood left at the scene after he broke down the door of Superdrug in Stone, Staffordshire, in December.
At Cannock Court on Friday, magistrates offered the landscape gardener, from Stoke-on-Trent, expert help in beating his three year steroid obsession.
They adjourned sentence until he has undergone a drug rehabilitation assessment, where experts will decide how best to rid him of his rare addiction.
The 23-year-old, his face tattooed, admitted burglary and a separate motoring offence. Defence solicitor Bobby Bell said: “He does not have an addiction to the usual drugs, such as heroin or cocaine.
“He has a three-year addiction to steroids, which has cost him in the region of £7,000.
“He has been out of trouble for three years, so he has not been regularly committing offences to feed this addiction. Work had dried-up and he could no longer feed this drug use through employment.”
Magistrates heard repairs and replacing stolen stock following the Superdrug raid cost £2,673.
Gilbert, who was granted conditional bail, will be sentenced on Wednesday.
Steroid and MJ bust in Naples, Florida.
A tip about suspected marijuana dealing led investigators to what is believed to be Collier County’s biggest steroid bust in years on Thursday morning.
Nicholas Munson Troemner, 28, a fitness trainer at Lifestyle Family Fitness Center, and his wife, Veronica Daniela Troemner, 29, identified in reports as a housewife, were arrested early Thursday after detectives seized about $20,000 worth of suspected steroids, along with marijuana and firearms from their North Naples home in the 5400 block of Teak Wood Drive.
“It’s more than I think anybody (involved in the bust) had ever seen,” said Lt. Harold Minch, of the Sheriff’s Office’s Vice and Narcotics Bureau. “It was the largest steroid grab we’ve had in awhile, at least in this agency.”
Nicholas Troemner was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of marijuana over 20 grams, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, failure to register as a convicted felon and possession of narcotic paraphernalia.
He was arrested in 2003 on a charge of carrying a concealed firearm and was sentenced to 18 months of state probation.
Veronica Troemner faces charges of possession of marijuana over 20 grams and possession of narcotic paraphernalia.
The steroid charges are pending until the Florida Department of Law Enforcement finishes running tests on the seized drugs.
Minch said the investigation began after the Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous tip regarding the Troemners dealing marijuana. Investigators began “connecting the dots,” Minch said, and started seeing evidence of steroids.
“Something like this doesn’t happen over night,” Minch said. “This was several months of work.”
Around 5:45 a.m. Thursday, detectives, along with the Sheriff’s Office’s SWAT team, executed a search warrant in the Troemners’ home, which Minch described as “shock and awe at the beginning.”
“We believe that they were fully aware of what was happening and why we were there,” Minch said. “They were very cooperative, very polite. There were no nasty exchanges.”
A search of the residence turned up around 200 vials of suspected anabolic steroids with an estimated street value of $20,000, and nearly 800 grams of marijuana with an estimated street value of $6,000, the Sheriff’s Office reported. Detectives also found narcotic paraphernalia, including two digital scales, syringes and glass vials, and several unmarked pill capsules containing an unknown white powdery substance.
They also located six firearms and numerous ammunition rounds inside the master bedroom, reports said. Additional ammunition was found in the garage area.
Lifestyle fitness staff declined comment on Nicholas Troemner’s arrest Friday.
“He’s been in the fitness business here for awhile,” Minch said. “He’s in excellent shape. He’s fairly well regarded.”
Courtney Lebel, 25, of East Naples couldn’t believe it when her mother told her that her personal trainer had been arrested on drug charges.
“I was like ‘No. It can’t be Nick. It must be somebody else,” Lebel said.
She had been scheduled to train with Troemner on Thursday night, but was told a family emergency prevented him from showing.
“Then, sure enough,” Lebel said. Troemner had been arrested hours earlier.
Lebel joined the gym in Golden Gate in October. Mostly, she just recalled Troemner always talking about his children and his family as he showed her how to use the equipment and helped develop a workout routine for her.
“You want to believe this person is living a healthy lifestyle because that’s what they’re promoting,” she said. “It’s disappointing.”
Libel said she won’t let it deter her from going back to the gym and finding another trainer. She’s disappointed, however, that the gym had hired Troemner, and said she would have thought a background check would weed out his employment based on the previous felony weapon conviction.
“I think that’s pretty serious as well… working with the public,” Libel said. “But I love the gym. It’s a nice environment and I feel safe when I go there at night,” she said.
Drugs weren’t likely being distributed at the gym, Lebel figured. “…But I’d be oblivious to that kind of thing,” she said.
Minch said steroid busts are rare in Southwest Florida because people use them quietly, typically in small groups of people who work out together. They’re not typically pushed on naive high school and middle school students, although young, impressionable athletes are sometimes interested.
“They fly under the radar,” Minch said of steroid users.
However, Minch said steroids are dangerous, which is why they are illegal.
“Yeah, it makes your muscles bigger,” Minch said, “but there are consequences as well.”
New study : "Illegal use of human growth hormone common among young male weightlifters".
A new study published in The American Journal on Addictions reveals that illicit use of HGH (human growth hormone) has become common among young American male weightlifters. Additionally, illicit HGH use in this population is often associated with polysubstance abuse involving both performance-enhancing and classical drugs.
HGH, once an expensive performance-enhancing drug used exclusively by elite athletes, has become cheaply available for illicit users on the street.
Researchers led by Brian P. Brennan, MD, MSc, of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, evaluated 231 male weightlifters in the U.S. aged 18-40 and their reports of drug use.
Results found that 27 (12 percent) reported illicit use of HGH and/or its close relative, insulin-like growth factor-I. All of these 27 men had also used anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), and 15 (56 percent) also reported current or past dependence on opioids, cocaine, and/or ecstasy.
These findings suggest that illicit HGH use is common, and is usually associated with abuse of both AAS and ordinary street drugs.
"The long-term risks of high-dose HGH use are little studied, but available evidence suggests that long-term high-dose HGH may have serious medical consequences, including cardiac, endocrine, and respiratory effects, as well as increased risk for certain cancers," Brennan notes. "Our findings suggest that mounting illicit HGH abuse may represent a dangerous new form of drug abuse with potentially severe public health consequences."
HGH, once an expensive performance-enhancing drug used exclusively by elite athletes, has become cheaply available for illicit users on the street.
Researchers led by Brian P. Brennan, MD, MSc, of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, evaluated 231 male weightlifters in the U.S. aged 18-40 and their reports of drug use.
Results found that 27 (12 percent) reported illicit use of HGH and/or its close relative, insulin-like growth factor-I. All of these 27 men had also used anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), and 15 (56 percent) also reported current or past dependence on opioids, cocaine, and/or ecstasy.
These findings suggest that illicit HGH use is common, and is usually associated with abuse of both AAS and ordinary street drugs.
"The long-term risks of high-dose HGH use are little studied, but available evidence suggests that long-term high-dose HGH may have serious medical consequences, including cardiac, endocrine, and respiratory effects, as well as increased risk for certain cancers," Brennan notes. "Our findings suggest that mounting illicit HGH abuse may represent a dangerous new form of drug abuse with potentially severe public health consequences."
Ex-cop admits steroids charges.
A former police officer who was implicated in an Albany-based investigation of steroid trafficking has pleaded guilty in Florida to a 15-count federal indictment for similar crimes.
Anthony Forgione, 46, who has ties to Long Island and Florida, faces a maximum potential sentence of life in prison for his guilty plea last Friday in U.S. District Court in Palm Beach County, Fla.
Forgione is being held at a jail in West Palm Beach awaiting sentencing. He previously worked as a police officer in New York City and Boca Raton, Fla.
Two years ago, Forgione pleaded guilty to three felony charges in Albany and was sentenced to probation. He admitted selling steroids and human growth hormone, through the mail, to customers in Albany County. The prescriptions, which were fraudulent, were filled by Orlando's Signature Compounding Pharmacy, according to prosecutors.
Forgione is described in federal court papers as a former wellness clinic operator who broke into the illicit drug trade in South Florida five years ago selling steroids and other controlled substances to people at gyms. His business, Infinity Longevity, was among several Internet-based "clinics" targeted by law enforcement agencies.
The federal case centers on several crimes committed by Forgione after his arrest in late 2007 on the Albany charges. It is not linked to the Albany investigation, although that case is referenced in Forgione's plea agreement.
In U.S. District Court last week, Forgione admitted federal crimes of distribution of human growth hormone, distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids.
Infinity Longevity was based in Boca Raton and later Delray Beach, Fla. The company, which marketed "hormone replacement therapy," was for a time a two-employee operation that consisted of Forgione and a South Florida osteopath physician, Gary Brandwein, who also pleaded guilty to drug charges in Albany.
Federal prosecutors said Forgione paid Brandwein about $11,000 a month to write prescriptions and that Brandwein rarely gave physical examinations to the patients receiving the drugs. The steroids and human growth hormone also were being prescribed for uses not allowed under federal laws, including bodybuilding and anti-aging.
Forgione was arrested in November 2007 when Florida police and New York Health Department investigators raided his Boca Raton home-office and confiscated drugs, guns and prescription records.
Brandwein was at Forgione's business when it was raided but not arrested.
Anthony Palladino, a former business manager for Signature Compounding Pharmacy, refused to answer questions about his relationship with Forgione during pre-trial depositions in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Albany County District Attorney David Soares and other agencies involved in the earlier investigation.
The federal lawsuit is pending in Orlando and was filed by Palladino and four other operators of Signature pharmacy. Wiretap records from the Signature pharmacy investigation included a conversation in which Palladino allegedly steered a potential customer to Forgione's "clinic" when the person called the pharmacy interested in obtaining steroids.
Signature's dealings with Forgione are not referenced in his federal case, which relates to Forgione's dealings with Treasure Coast Pharmacy in Martin County, Fla. Law enforcement sources said Treasure Coast Pharmacy obtained customers who had used Signature pharmacy before it was raided in February 2007.
Forgione was fired from his job as a Boca Raton police officer about six years ago amid allegations he used steroids and neglected his duties to lift weights, according to published reports and Florida State Department records. Before joining the Boca Raton force, Forgione worked for several years as an NYPD officer.
His sentencing is set for March 25 in West Palm Beach.
Anthony Forgione, 46, who has ties to Long Island and Florida, faces a maximum potential sentence of life in prison for his guilty plea last Friday in U.S. District Court in Palm Beach County, Fla.
Forgione is being held at a jail in West Palm Beach awaiting sentencing. He previously worked as a police officer in New York City and Boca Raton, Fla.
Two years ago, Forgione pleaded guilty to three felony charges in Albany and was sentenced to probation. He admitted selling steroids and human growth hormone, through the mail, to customers in Albany County. The prescriptions, which were fraudulent, were filled by Orlando's Signature Compounding Pharmacy, according to prosecutors.
Forgione is described in federal court papers as a former wellness clinic operator who broke into the illicit drug trade in South Florida five years ago selling steroids and other controlled substances to people at gyms. His business, Infinity Longevity, was among several Internet-based "clinics" targeted by law enforcement agencies.
The federal case centers on several crimes committed by Forgione after his arrest in late 2007 on the Albany charges. It is not linked to the Albany investigation, although that case is referenced in Forgione's plea agreement.
In U.S. District Court last week, Forgione admitted federal crimes of distribution of human growth hormone, distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids.
Infinity Longevity was based in Boca Raton and later Delray Beach, Fla. The company, which marketed "hormone replacement therapy," was for a time a two-employee operation that consisted of Forgione and a South Florida osteopath physician, Gary Brandwein, who also pleaded guilty to drug charges in Albany.
Federal prosecutors said Forgione paid Brandwein about $11,000 a month to write prescriptions and that Brandwein rarely gave physical examinations to the patients receiving the drugs. The steroids and human growth hormone also were being prescribed for uses not allowed under federal laws, including bodybuilding and anti-aging.
Forgione was arrested in November 2007 when Florida police and New York Health Department investigators raided his Boca Raton home-office and confiscated drugs, guns and prescription records.
Brandwein was at Forgione's business when it was raided but not arrested.
Anthony Palladino, a former business manager for Signature Compounding Pharmacy, refused to answer questions about his relationship with Forgione during pre-trial depositions in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Albany County District Attorney David Soares and other agencies involved in the earlier investigation.
The federal lawsuit is pending in Orlando and was filed by Palladino and four other operators of Signature pharmacy. Wiretap records from the Signature pharmacy investigation included a conversation in which Palladino allegedly steered a potential customer to Forgione's "clinic" when the person called the pharmacy interested in obtaining steroids.
Signature's dealings with Forgione are not referenced in his federal case, which relates to Forgione's dealings with Treasure Coast Pharmacy in Martin County, Fla. Law enforcement sources said Treasure Coast Pharmacy obtained customers who had used Signature pharmacy before it was raided in February 2007.
Forgione was fired from his job as a Boca Raton police officer about six years ago amid allegations he used steroids and neglected his duties to lift weights, according to published reports and Florida State Department records. Before joining the Boca Raton force, Forgione worked for several years as an NYPD officer.
His sentencing is set for March 25 in West Palm Beach.
Tour De France cyclist Landis calls for legalised doping.
Landis, who announced his retirement on Tuesday, lost his 2006 Tour title after testing positive for testosterone and last year accused former team mate and seven-times Tour champion Lance Armstrong of doping.
He now believes the fight against doping is one that cannot be won.
"You've got to legalise doping. They (the testers) are so far behind in the testing organisations that there's no way to change it now," American Landis told Cyclingnews website (www.cyclingnews.com) on Wednesday.
"Just accept that it's here, that it's not going away and that it's just going to get more complicated and the fact that it's not that complicated yet compared to what it will be," Landis said.
"Ten years from now it's going to be four times as hard as it is now to test for things."
The only concern should be the riders' health, added Landis, who last year accused several prominent figures in the sport of cheating.
"Since you can't stop it you have to deal with it in rational kind of way," he said.
"You can't stop it and you cant fix it. Monitor it and make sure people don't hurt themselves, but you have to accept it."
He now believes the fight against doping is one that cannot be won.
"You've got to legalise doping. They (the testers) are so far behind in the testing organisations that there's no way to change it now," American Landis told Cyclingnews website (www.cyclingnews.com) on Wednesday.
"Just accept that it's here, that it's not going away and that it's just going to get more complicated and the fact that it's not that complicated yet compared to what it will be," Landis said.
"Ten years from now it's going to be four times as hard as it is now to test for things."
The only concern should be the riders' health, added Landis, who last year accused several prominent figures in the sport of cheating.
"Since you can't stop it you have to deal with it in rational kind of way," he said.
"You can't stop it and you cant fix it. Monitor it and make sure people don't hurt themselves, but you have to accept it."
Taylor Hooton Foundation spokesman claims fastest fastest growing group of anabolic steroid users are cheerleaders ( no pun intended )
Removed due to original source complaint :-)
More Anti-steroid propaganda from Australia.
Security guard Darren Sweeney once gave into the temptation of using steroids to help gain more muscle tone.
‘‘I was on a diet and managed to lose 43kilograms but I was still a bit flabby around my stomach. I wanted something to help tighten up a bit so I tried steroids for about four months,’’ he said.
The then 23-year-old gained 10 kilograms of muscle within two months but it came at a price.
‘‘I had constant muscle pain in my forearms and was more aggressive,’’ Mr Sweeney said.
Now 38, Mr Sweeney agreed steroid use had significantly increased among young men wanting to bulk up quickly.
‘‘I’ve seen kids as young as 15 [using steroids],’’ he said.
‘‘Basically they are just wanting to look good in front of their mates and girls.’’
The most visible sign is severe acne on the back and tricep muscles. Mr Sweeney, who now uses herbal supplements, said steroids were widely available ‘‘if you know the right people’’.
‘‘For something like Sustanon 250, I’ve heard you can pay between $180 to $200 for a 10millilitre ampoule,’’ he said.
‘‘The real worry is these kids don’t know what they are doing to themselves.’’
‘‘I was on a diet and managed to lose 43kilograms but I was still a bit flabby around my stomach. I wanted something to help tighten up a bit so I tried steroids for about four months,’’ he said.
The then 23-year-old gained 10 kilograms of muscle within two months but it came at a price.
‘‘I had constant muscle pain in my forearms and was more aggressive,’’ Mr Sweeney said.
Now 38, Mr Sweeney agreed steroid use had significantly increased among young men wanting to bulk up quickly.
‘‘I’ve seen kids as young as 15 [using steroids],’’ he said.
‘‘Basically they are just wanting to look good in front of their mates and girls.’’
The most visible sign is severe acne on the back and tricep muscles. Mr Sweeney, who now uses herbal supplements, said steroids were widely available ‘‘if you know the right people’’.
‘‘For something like Sustanon 250, I’ve heard you can pay between $180 to $200 for a 10millilitre ampoule,’’ he said.
‘‘The real worry is these kids don’t know what they are doing to themselves.’’
Anti-steroid propaganda from Australia.
Steroid abuse is on the increase again.
Popular some years ago, anabolic steroids fell into disfavour as their side-effects became apparent and "roid-heads" became objects of ridicule.
Sadly, a new generation - one perhaps not yet fully exposed to the downside of steroids - is being seduced by the false promise of a shortcut to a perfect body.
In their own time these youngsters will discover the truth - that a steroid-inflated body is about as convincing and impressive as a fake tan and that the personal cost of abuse can be horrendous.
Even if the purity of black market steroids could be guaranteed (it can't), abusers run the risk of detrimental impacts on their personalities and behaviour. "Roid rage" is just the tip of an iceberg of psychological symptoms that produce the opposite of the self-esteem and self-assurance that many abusers are seeking.
The physical symptoms are potentially dreadful too. Bodies out of proportion, unwelcome "man boobs", shrunken genitals and acne explosions are just the beginning. Internal damage is prevalent and can be irreversible.
To the extent that steroid abuse reflects anxiety among young men about their body image, it represents a growing problem that demands serious attention. Like eating disorders in both young men and women, the problem is a symptom of an increasingly prevalent mental health issue.
Hospital admissions and many social studies indicate that growing numbers of young people are so anxious and depressed about their apparent failure to conform to the socially approved body image that they will endanger their physical health in an attempt to attain their perceived "ideal".
It is hard to isolate a single cause for this trend, but poor diet, coupled with widespread obesity and, ironically, publicity campaigns designed to combat obesity are involved in the mix. The promotion in the entertainment media of a narrow range of body types as "ideal" has frequently been blamed for inducing body image anxiety in females. Nowadays it might just as fairly be blamed for producing the same effects in males.
Popular some years ago, anabolic steroids fell into disfavour as their side-effects became apparent and "roid-heads" became objects of ridicule.
Sadly, a new generation - one perhaps not yet fully exposed to the downside of steroids - is being seduced by the false promise of a shortcut to a perfect body.
In their own time these youngsters will discover the truth - that a steroid-inflated body is about as convincing and impressive as a fake tan and that the personal cost of abuse can be horrendous.
Even if the purity of black market steroids could be guaranteed (it can't), abusers run the risk of detrimental impacts on their personalities and behaviour. "Roid rage" is just the tip of an iceberg of psychological symptoms that produce the opposite of the self-esteem and self-assurance that many abusers are seeking.
The physical symptoms are potentially dreadful too. Bodies out of proportion, unwelcome "man boobs", shrunken genitals and acne explosions are just the beginning. Internal damage is prevalent and can be irreversible.
To the extent that steroid abuse reflects anxiety among young men about their body image, it represents a growing problem that demands serious attention. Like eating disorders in both young men and women, the problem is a symptom of an increasingly prevalent mental health issue.
Hospital admissions and many social studies indicate that growing numbers of young people are so anxious and depressed about their apparent failure to conform to the socially approved body image that they will endanger their physical health in an attempt to attain their perceived "ideal".
It is hard to isolate a single cause for this trend, but poor diet, coupled with widespread obesity and, ironically, publicity campaigns designed to combat obesity are involved in the mix. The promotion in the entertainment media of a narrow range of body types as "ideal" has frequently been blamed for inducing body image anxiety in females. Nowadays it might just as fairly be blamed for producing the same effects in males.
Police officer suspect in drug sting.
A Stockton police officer was arrested in a sting Thursday night on suspicion of trafficking steroids, the Police Department reported Friday.
The officer, 26-year-old Darrin Fagundes, was arrested around 9:10 p.m. in a Tracy parking lot, along with Anthony Scott Kubena, 38.
Both were booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of possession for sale of a controlled substance, a felony.
The investigation of Fagundes was an internal investigation by the Stockton Police Department, said Officer Pete Smith, a police spokesman.
Fagundes, hired in 2007, has been placed on administrative leave.
Smith said there is no evidence that the investigation, still ongoing, will reach further into the Police Department's ranks. Smith also said he did not know exactly what Kubena's part was.
"He was involved in the transaction (Thursday) taking place during the arrest," Smith said.
The officer, 26-year-old Darrin Fagundes, was arrested around 9:10 p.m. in a Tracy parking lot, along with Anthony Scott Kubena, 38.
Both were booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of possession for sale of a controlled substance, a felony.
The investigation of Fagundes was an internal investigation by the Stockton Police Department, said Officer Pete Smith, a police spokesman.
Fagundes, hired in 2007, has been placed on administrative leave.
Smith said there is no evidence that the investigation, still ongoing, will reach further into the Police Department's ranks. Smith also said he did not know exactly what Kubena's part was.
"He was involved in the transaction (Thursday) taking place during the arrest," Smith said.
Former Boca Raton cop pleads guilty to selling steroids and HGH.
A fired Boca Raton cop on Friday pleaded guilty to 15 charges for illegally peddling steroids and human growth hormones.
Anthony Forgione, 46, faces a maximum 115 years in prison and a $5.7 million fine when sentenced on March 25. He agreed to cooperate with ongoing investigations in hopes of reducing his sentence.
Forgione, who was fired in 2003 under suspicions of steroid use, pleaded guilty in 2008 to similar charges as part of a wide-ranging investigation in New York state dubbed Operation Which Doctor that snared other Palm Beach County residents.
Anthony Forgione, 46, faces a maximum 115 years in prison and a $5.7 million fine when sentenced on March 25. He agreed to cooperate with ongoing investigations in hopes of reducing his sentence.
Forgione, who was fired in 2003 under suspicions of steroid use, pleaded guilty in 2008 to similar charges as part of a wide-ranging investigation in New York state dubbed Operation Which Doctor that snared other Palm Beach County residents.
Hayward man pleads guilty to steroids possession.
A 32-year-old Hayward man pleaded guilty in federal court in Madison on Thursday to charges of possessing anabolic steroids with the intent to distribute.
Michael Wozny could get 10 years in prison without parole when he is sentenced March 17 by U.S. District Judge William Conley.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice, the Wozny case started in late 2006, when a Minnesota man was arrested for dealing steroids. That individual said he purchased the performance-enhancing drugs from another man in Minnesota, who said he got the drugs from Wozny.
The case against Wozny grew stronger when John Zellers, known as the Label Doktor, was convicted in New Jersey of causing the introduction of anabolic steroids into interstate commerce by providing high-quality labels for bottles of the unapproved drugs.
Investigators found Zellers provided Wozny with labels in 2007, with the smallest of three or four orders containing enough labels for 630 bottles of anabolic steroids.
When police issued a search warrant at Wozny's residence in Hayward in 2007, about 1 kilogram of powdered anabolic steroids was found, the release said.
Michael Wozny could get 10 years in prison without parole when he is sentenced March 17 by U.S. District Judge William Conley.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice, the Wozny case started in late 2006, when a Minnesota man was arrested for dealing steroids. That individual said he purchased the performance-enhancing drugs from another man in Minnesota, who said he got the drugs from Wozny.
The case against Wozny grew stronger when John Zellers, known as the Label Doktor, was convicted in New Jersey of causing the introduction of anabolic steroids into interstate commerce by providing high-quality labels for bottles of the unapproved drugs.
Investigators found Zellers provided Wozny with labels in 2007, with the smallest of three or four orders containing enough labels for 630 bottles of anabolic steroids.
When police issued a search warrant at Wozny's residence in Hayward in 2007, about 1 kilogram of powdered anabolic steroids was found, the release said.
Viagra inhibits muscle breakdown ?
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a progressively debilitating, muscle-wasting disease.
But a new study is exploring whether a popular pill can help slow the damage.
Muscular Dystrophy leads to progressive weakness of muscles, including breathing and heart muscles. A doctor in Baltimore is heading up a study on whether Viagra could help. The drug inhibits muscle breakdown, which could help improve the heart's "squeeze."
Neurologist, Kathryn Wagner, M.D., Ph.D. says, "The actual drug does work on the heart and there's a lot of data that suggests that not only does it improve heart function, but it actually may remodel the heart, so that you, you get a better heart. If it had the additional benefit of having some improvement in their skeletal muscle, then it's a homerun."
But a new study is exploring whether a popular pill can help slow the damage.
Muscular Dystrophy leads to progressive weakness of muscles, including breathing and heart muscles. A doctor in Baltimore is heading up a study on whether Viagra could help. The drug inhibits muscle breakdown, which could help improve the heart's "squeeze."
Neurologist, Kathryn Wagner, M.D., Ph.D. says, "The actual drug does work on the heart and there's a lot of data that suggests that not only does it improve heart function, but it actually may remodel the heart, so that you, you get a better heart. If it had the additional benefit of having some improvement in their skeletal muscle, then it's a homerun."
New positive study on the use of Deca after knee surgery.
Total knee arthroplasty is reported to improve the patient's quality of life and mobility. However loss of mobility and pain prior to surgery often results in disuse atrophy of muscle. As a consequence the baseline functional state prior to surgery may result in poorer outcome "post surgery" and extended rehabilitation may be required. The use of anabolic steroids for performance enhancement and to influence muscle mass is well established. The positive effects of such treatment on bone and muscle could therefore be beneficial in the rehabilitation of elderly patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of small doses of Nandrolone decanoate on recovery and muscle strength after total knee replacement and to establish the safety of this drug in multimorbid patients.
Read the rest here.
Read the rest here.
Steroids in Rugby article.
( we've only bothered with the first half of it the second is the usual anti steroid crap )
They’ve been called a lot of things: the juice, the sauce, D-bol, roids, doping. The polite world likes to call them performance enhancing drugs. I weighed 178 lbs when I started playing rugby. I was 20 years old, and too slow and too short to play anywhere but in the front row.
Up there, I soon learned that I wanted to be as strong as possible. I wanted to dominate my opposition, or, at the least, not let the opposite happen.
I became enthralled with weight lifting – the heavier, the better. My goal was to bench press 350 lbs. In the weight-room (primitive in those days), I met some very strong lifters. That’s when I first heard about steroids.
Rumours abounded – that the new body-building phenom from Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and most other big-name muscle-men used them. My friend and I drove to Mexico and bought some Dianabol; I took it for two weeks, and added 40 lbs to my bench press in 1 month, hitting the magic 350.
Public denials in all sports were the order of the day, and no one much cared what the truth was. Soon we started hearing about American gridiron players using, about the Eastern Bloc women, about the shotput and hammer throwers. It spread and grew.
Wherever fame, money, power, and/or narcissism influenced a sport and/or its players, steroids and their cousins lurked around the fringes and, in some cases, cut tracks right through the middle. American gridiron saw a lot of steroid use in the 1960s and 70s, and probably still does.
Steroid use was called The Edge. In a big money professional game, built on size, strength, and violent contact, having “an edge” on your competition was important if you wanted to earn the big dollars, if you wanted to keep your job. And your competition wasn’t just the other team on Saturday or Sunday, but also younger, faster, stronger players trying to take your spot on your team.
In those days it was a crude practice – changing room syringes, pills from Mexico or East Germany, cooperative doctors, closed-mouth team owners and managers.
Steroid use became a form of job protection, of economic survival in the ruthless crucible of cut-throat big business masquerading as sport.
Then people started dying – heart attacks, liver cancer, cerebral bleeds. That didn’t stop the use, but it brought it a lot of unwanted attention. Testing, then more testing, then a lot of political posturing, some enforcement, education, more policing, more enforcement, more findings, bans, more doping, and so on, and so forth.
Eastern athletes exposed, Ben Johnson stripped of gold, and sometimes it seemed that the floodgates of truth would open. But it hasn’t changed. Wherever money is on the table, whenever performance can be peddled for fame and influence and power and riches, there will always be someone looking for and exploiting The Edge.
Those of us who wake in the morning thinking about how things are going with our favourite rugby teams and rugby players, who pore over the sporting news for rugby bits, who remember individual touches of the ball, who still feel the grains of mud under our eyelids and the water squirting out our bootlace holes, who can hear the forehead hitting the sternum as we close our eyes for sleep, we are worried.
Relatively few incidents of drug use have been revealed in rugby. But no one who really pays attention to this scourge, this plague in professional sports, no one who can see how well steroids’ distortions-from-normal give short-term advantage to certain styles of rugby positional play, can doubt the high level of risk that our game is in to contamination from this array of poisons, and from the deceptions and dangers that go with them.
Personally, I firmly believe they are far more widespread than any testing regime in rugby has shown. I am suspicious that teams, even national test teams, have ignored, if not actually encouraged, their use.
There are individual players whose body size, muscle bulk, and emotionally-unbalanced aggression indicate something at work other than passion for the game and for fair but unbridled competitive play.
What evidence do I have that would hold up in a court? None. Why am I suspicious? I’ve been an athlete for 50 years. I’ve been attached to rugby for 45 of those years. I’ve watched, and taken some sincere interest, in all major international sports and many minor ones.
I spent many years in weight rooms and on training fields. I have more than a layman’s knowledge of diet, nutrition, cell physiology, exercise physiology, and human psychology. I think I have a pretty good idea of what’s normal, what the range or spectrum of normal includes, and what falls far outside that range. I’m a believer in the dictum: If it looks like duck, smells like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, it’s a duck.
You can’t tell a book by its cover, but that doesn’t mean all appearance is a lie. Carl Lewis was one of the most beautiful athletes of his type to ever grace the human eye. His skills were pristine, his efforts enthralling, his competitiveness and confidence supreme. He was a world-beater. But he was balanced – he was mentally sharp at all times, fully conversant, in control, and his physique matched his events and his accomplishments.
Ben Johnson was a physical freak as a sprinter; his biceps and deltoids and pectorals and traps were simply off the charts for a world-class sprinter. There have been heavy-muscled sprinters before – Jesse Owens, Bob Hayes, and a few others. But they generally had other sports for which those muscles were built and used: gridiron, in the case of Owens and Hayes. But Johnson had the cut and bulk and definition that indicates something strange, something wrong. So it was.
We’re starting to see some of these freakish physiques in rugby union. Remember what it takes to build out a 6’4” frame with 240lbs of muscle and virtually no fat.
Remember that, along with Superman muscularity, one of the attributes of anabolic steroid (and their cousins) use is selective fat metabolism, resulting in the cut-and-slash definition typical of body-builders, and now visible in the Web-based shirtless photos of some highly touted – and highly paid – rugby players. When you compare these photos with those of body-builders in the early steroid days, there’s not a lot of difference.
They’ve been called a lot of things: the juice, the sauce, D-bol, roids, doping. The polite world likes to call them performance enhancing drugs. I weighed 178 lbs when I started playing rugby. I was 20 years old, and too slow and too short to play anywhere but in the front row.
Up there, I soon learned that I wanted to be as strong as possible. I wanted to dominate my opposition, or, at the least, not let the opposite happen.
I became enthralled with weight lifting – the heavier, the better. My goal was to bench press 350 lbs. In the weight-room (primitive in those days), I met some very strong lifters. That’s when I first heard about steroids.
Rumours abounded – that the new body-building phenom from Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and most other big-name muscle-men used them. My friend and I drove to Mexico and bought some Dianabol; I took it for two weeks, and added 40 lbs to my bench press in 1 month, hitting the magic 350.
Public denials in all sports were the order of the day, and no one much cared what the truth was. Soon we started hearing about American gridiron players using, about the Eastern Bloc women, about the shotput and hammer throwers. It spread and grew.
Wherever fame, money, power, and/or narcissism influenced a sport and/or its players, steroids and their cousins lurked around the fringes and, in some cases, cut tracks right through the middle. American gridiron saw a lot of steroid use in the 1960s and 70s, and probably still does.
Steroid use was called The Edge. In a big money professional game, built on size, strength, and violent contact, having “an edge” on your competition was important if you wanted to earn the big dollars, if you wanted to keep your job. And your competition wasn’t just the other team on Saturday or Sunday, but also younger, faster, stronger players trying to take your spot on your team.
In those days it was a crude practice – changing room syringes, pills from Mexico or East Germany, cooperative doctors, closed-mouth team owners and managers.
Steroid use became a form of job protection, of economic survival in the ruthless crucible of cut-throat big business masquerading as sport.
Then people started dying – heart attacks, liver cancer, cerebral bleeds. That didn’t stop the use, but it brought it a lot of unwanted attention. Testing, then more testing, then a lot of political posturing, some enforcement, education, more policing, more enforcement, more findings, bans, more doping, and so on, and so forth.
Eastern athletes exposed, Ben Johnson stripped of gold, and sometimes it seemed that the floodgates of truth would open. But it hasn’t changed. Wherever money is on the table, whenever performance can be peddled for fame and influence and power and riches, there will always be someone looking for and exploiting The Edge.
Those of us who wake in the morning thinking about how things are going with our favourite rugby teams and rugby players, who pore over the sporting news for rugby bits, who remember individual touches of the ball, who still feel the grains of mud under our eyelids and the water squirting out our bootlace holes, who can hear the forehead hitting the sternum as we close our eyes for sleep, we are worried.
Relatively few incidents of drug use have been revealed in rugby. But no one who really pays attention to this scourge, this plague in professional sports, no one who can see how well steroids’ distortions-from-normal give short-term advantage to certain styles of rugby positional play, can doubt the high level of risk that our game is in to contamination from this array of poisons, and from the deceptions and dangers that go with them.
Personally, I firmly believe they are far more widespread than any testing regime in rugby has shown. I am suspicious that teams, even national test teams, have ignored, if not actually encouraged, their use.
There are individual players whose body size, muscle bulk, and emotionally-unbalanced aggression indicate something at work other than passion for the game and for fair but unbridled competitive play.
What evidence do I have that would hold up in a court? None. Why am I suspicious? I’ve been an athlete for 50 years. I’ve been attached to rugby for 45 of those years. I’ve watched, and taken some sincere interest, in all major international sports and many minor ones.
I spent many years in weight rooms and on training fields. I have more than a layman’s knowledge of diet, nutrition, cell physiology, exercise physiology, and human psychology. I think I have a pretty good idea of what’s normal, what the range or spectrum of normal includes, and what falls far outside that range. I’m a believer in the dictum: If it looks like duck, smells like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, it’s a duck.
You can’t tell a book by its cover, but that doesn’t mean all appearance is a lie. Carl Lewis was one of the most beautiful athletes of his type to ever grace the human eye. His skills were pristine, his efforts enthralling, his competitiveness and confidence supreme. He was a world-beater. But he was balanced – he was mentally sharp at all times, fully conversant, in control, and his physique matched his events and his accomplishments.
Ben Johnson was a physical freak as a sprinter; his biceps and deltoids and pectorals and traps were simply off the charts for a world-class sprinter. There have been heavy-muscled sprinters before – Jesse Owens, Bob Hayes, and a few others. But they generally had other sports for which those muscles were built and used: gridiron, in the case of Owens and Hayes. But Johnson had the cut and bulk and definition that indicates something strange, something wrong. So it was.
We’re starting to see some of these freakish physiques in rugby union. Remember what it takes to build out a 6’4” frame with 240lbs of muscle and virtually no fat.
Remember that, along with Superman muscularity, one of the attributes of anabolic steroid (and their cousins) use is selective fat metabolism, resulting in the cut-and-slash definition typical of body-builders, and now visible in the Web-based shirtless photos of some highly touted – and highly paid – rugby players. When you compare these photos with those of body-builders in the early steroid days, there’s not a lot of difference.
British weightlifter banned for using Primobolan ?
A British medal prospect for the 2012 London Olympics was ruled out of the Games after being banned for two years on Thursday for testing positive for steroids.
Weightlifter Denis Catana, originally from Moldova, tested positive for the banned substance Metenolone before October’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
He was provisionally suspended from all competition after failing a control in August, meaning he was unable to compete at the Commonwealth Games for England.
The ban, imposed by UK Anti-Doping, rules Catana out of the 2012 Olympics even without the British Olympic Association’s standard lifetime ban for drugs cheats.
Catana had been England’s leading weightlifter in the snatch and clean and jerk events in 2010.
Weightlifting has been repeatedly tainted by doping controversies, leading to questioning of its place in multi-sport events such as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
Weightlifter Denis Catana, originally from Moldova, tested positive for the banned substance Metenolone before October’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
He was provisionally suspended from all competition after failing a control in August, meaning he was unable to compete at the Commonwealth Games for England.
The ban, imposed by UK Anti-Doping, rules Catana out of the 2012 Olympics even without the British Olympic Association’s standard lifetime ban for drugs cheats.
Catana had been England’s leading weightlifter in the snatch and clean and jerk events in 2010.
Weightlifting has been repeatedly tainted by doping controversies, leading to questioning of its place in multi-sport events such as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
British sellers of fake Hygetropin busted in 2009 now face asset seizure.
Confiscation proceedings against two Rotherham men convicted of drugs offences in 2009 have been adjourned until April.
Bodybuilders Richard Flynn, aged 40, of Manor Close, and Christopher Taylor, 45, of Haugh Green, both from Rawmarsh, received suspended prison sentences for conspiring to sell and supply class C drugs, including steroids.
The duo's conviction followed a joint investigation by South Yorkshire Police and the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.
Now they face being stripped of their assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Police have estimated that Flynn has assets of £292,000 while Taylor has £283,000.
Their case will be heard at Sheffield Crown Court.
Bodybuilders Richard Flynn, aged 40, of Manor Close, and Christopher Taylor, 45, of Haugh Green, both from Rawmarsh, received suspended prison sentences for conspiring to sell and supply class C drugs, including steroids.
The duo's conviction followed a joint investigation by South Yorkshire Police and the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.
Now they face being stripped of their assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Police have estimated that Flynn has assets of £292,000 while Taylor has £283,000.
Their case will be heard at Sheffield Crown Court.
Perrysburg man faces up to 34 years in prison when he is sentenced for anabolic steroid offences.
A Perrysburg man faces up to 34 years in prison when he is sentenced for manufacturing, possessing, and selling anabolic steroids.
Greg A. Kreuz, 39, of 1903 Coe Ct. pleaded no contest Tuesday to two counts of aggravated possession of drugs and one count each of illegal manufacture of drugs, possession of drugs, and trafficking in drugs. Wood County Common Pleas Judge Alan Mayberry found him guilty and scheduled sentencing for Feb. 25.
Gwen Howe-Gebers, chief assistant Wood County prosecutor, said Kreuz was manufacturing his own brand of steroids and even printed his own labels.
Investigators first began hearing about Kreuz's illegal activity in the fall of 2009, she said. Postal inspectors reported he was receiving items from China through the mail, and a drug task force in Franklin County advised that he was selling and distributing his steroids in exchange for the prescription painkiller Oxycontin.
Local investigators literally went through his trash.
"He would not put his trash out in front of his house. He went down the street to where a number of trash containers were, and they would follow him at different times of the day or night," Ms. Howe-Gebers said.
When investigators executed a search warrant at Kreuz's home on July 7, 2010, they found pills used to manufacture steroids, vials, and cash behind hidden panels in the stairs and walls. They seized Oxycontin, Ritalin, and anabolic steroids.
"They also found cash in the basement in a false ceiling and in his room in his closet," Ms. Howe-Gebers said.
In the garage, investigators found a plastic storage tote containing a hotplate, a blender, a computer, and a printer he used to print his own labels, among other items used to manufacture and distribute drugs.
As part of the plea agreement with Kreuz, an additional charge of aggravated possession of drugs is to be dismissed at sentencing along with a specification that alleged he manufactured steroids in the vicinity of a juvenile or a school.
Ms. Howe-Gebers said Kreuz could receive between 2 and 34 years in prison, and she plans to recommend "double digit" prison time. As part of the plea agreement, she said, Kreuz is to file an affidavit of indigency so that he won't be required to pay mandatory fines for the convictions. In return, he will not contest the forfeiture of money and property seized during two searches of his Perrysburg home, including more than $45,000 in cash, two vehicles, computer equipment, flat-screen televisions, and appliances.
Ms. Howe-Gebers said Kreuz, who remains free on bond, has a prior conviction for selling and distributing steroids in Fulton County.
Greg A. Kreuz, 39, of 1903 Coe Ct. pleaded no contest Tuesday to two counts of aggravated possession of drugs and one count each of illegal manufacture of drugs, possession of drugs, and trafficking in drugs. Wood County Common Pleas Judge Alan Mayberry found him guilty and scheduled sentencing for Feb. 25.
Gwen Howe-Gebers, chief assistant Wood County prosecutor, said Kreuz was manufacturing his own brand of steroids and even printed his own labels.
Investigators first began hearing about Kreuz's illegal activity in the fall of 2009, she said. Postal inspectors reported he was receiving items from China through the mail, and a drug task force in Franklin County advised that he was selling and distributing his steroids in exchange for the prescription painkiller Oxycontin.
Local investigators literally went through his trash.
"He would not put his trash out in front of his house. He went down the street to where a number of trash containers were, and they would follow him at different times of the day or night," Ms. Howe-Gebers said.
When investigators executed a search warrant at Kreuz's home on July 7, 2010, they found pills used to manufacture steroids, vials, and cash behind hidden panels in the stairs and walls. They seized Oxycontin, Ritalin, and anabolic steroids.
"They also found cash in the basement in a false ceiling and in his room in his closet," Ms. Howe-Gebers said.
In the garage, investigators found a plastic storage tote containing a hotplate, a blender, a computer, and a printer he used to print his own labels, among other items used to manufacture and distribute drugs.
As part of the plea agreement with Kreuz, an additional charge of aggravated possession of drugs is to be dismissed at sentencing along with a specification that alleged he manufactured steroids in the vicinity of a juvenile or a school.
Ms. Howe-Gebers said Kreuz could receive between 2 and 34 years in prison, and she plans to recommend "double digit" prison time. As part of the plea agreement, she said, Kreuz is to file an affidavit of indigency so that he won't be required to pay mandatory fines for the convictions. In return, he will not contest the forfeiture of money and property seized during two searches of his Perrysburg home, including more than $45,000 in cash, two vehicles, computer equipment, flat-screen televisions, and appliances.
Ms. Howe-Gebers said Kreuz, who remains free on bond, has a prior conviction for selling and distributing steroids in Fulton County.
Former Akron Police officer pleads guilty in steroids case.
A former Akron police sergeant pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of steroids possession.
Shawn M. Boal, 38, was placed on probation for 18 months and ordered to obtain drug treatment.
He pleaded guilty to felony possession of drugs and one misdemeanor count of possessing drug abuse instruments.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter imposed the sentence.
Boal resigned from the department Monday.
Two other Akron police officers were placed on leave last year during an internal investigation into the use of anabolic steroids within the department.
Boal and street officers Anthony Sutton and Paul Achberger were arrested in June on steroids-related charges.
Sutton, 50, and Achberger, 40, pleaded guilty in November to misdemeanor charges in Akron Municipal Court. They are seeking treatment, and if successful, the charges would be dropped.
They have since returned to the department after being on unpaid leave for about six months.
Achberger, an 11-year veteran, and Sutton, a 15-year veteran, were charged with one count each of abusing anabolic steroids and of possessing hypodermic needles, both misdemeanors.
Both men remain with the force on light duty. They must undergo random drug testing for a year. They are expected to return to full duty in four to six weeks.
Akron police officers are not tested for steriods.
In the cases of Sutton and Achberger, the police union and city labor attorneys reached an agreement that limits steroids testing to those officers.
Fraternal Order of Police President Paul Hlynsky said steroid testing is problematic due to the fallibility of testing methods and the number of false positives.
"It would be a nightmare and extremely costly" he said.
Shawn M. Boal, 38, was placed on probation for 18 months and ordered to obtain drug treatment.
He pleaded guilty to felony possession of drugs and one misdemeanor count of possessing drug abuse instruments.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter imposed the sentence.
Boal resigned from the department Monday.
Two other Akron police officers were placed on leave last year during an internal investigation into the use of anabolic steroids within the department.
Boal and street officers Anthony Sutton and Paul Achberger were arrested in June on steroids-related charges.
Sutton, 50, and Achberger, 40, pleaded guilty in November to misdemeanor charges in Akron Municipal Court. They are seeking treatment, and if successful, the charges would be dropped.
They have since returned to the department after being on unpaid leave for about six months.
Achberger, an 11-year veteran, and Sutton, a 15-year veteran, were charged with one count each of abusing anabolic steroids and of possessing hypodermic needles, both misdemeanors.
Both men remain with the force on light duty. They must undergo random drug testing for a year. They are expected to return to full duty in four to six weeks.
Akron police officers are not tested for steriods.
In the cases of Sutton and Achberger, the police union and city labor attorneys reached an agreement that limits steroids testing to those officers.
Fraternal Order of Police President Paul Hlynsky said steroid testing is problematic due to the fallibility of testing methods and the number of false positives.
"It would be a nightmare and extremely costly" he said.
William Llewellyn's new 2010 Anabolics Book now available.
I'm a regular on the Body of Science forums yet somehow I managed miss all the posts with links to this free PDF preview of William Llewellyn's latest Anabolics book.
I'm presuming that if I missed it so may many of you reading so here is the link Anabolics Book.
I'm presuming that if I missed it so may many of you reading so here is the link Anabolics Book.
UG lab owner pleads guilty four years after his Operation Raw Deal bust .
A Southern California man accused of running a steroids lab in Compton has agreed to plead guilty to weapons and drug charges, according to court documents filed Monday.
Warren Abramson will plead guilty to five counts, including one for possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and three for having gun silencers. A court date to enter his plea before a judge has not yet been determined.
He faces up to 55 years in federal prison and fines totaling $1.25 million.
A phone message left for Abramson's attorney, Thomas Nishi, was not immediately returned.
Abramson, 34, offered steroids for sale on the Internet through his distribution company and leased a building in Compton to manufacture the substance as well as other drugs, the plea agreement said.
Abramson, a former military police officer, had more than 6400 grams of anabolic steroids that he intended to deliver to his clients in September 2007, prosecutors said. That amount could result in more than 255,000 dosage units.
Among the items seized from Abramson included three silencers, four firearms and more than 4,500 rounds of ammunition, court documents show.
Abramson was among more than 120 people who were arrested in 2007 as part of a global investigation into steroid trafficking over the Internet. Dubbed Operation Raw Deal, federal agents busted 56 labs and recovered more than 11 million doses of steroids and human growth hormone.
Abramson, who was soliciting customers from around the nation, was one of the larger steroid providers arrested in the investigation, law enforcement officials said.
What was touted at the time by federal authorities as the largest-ever crackdown on steroids followed a growing number of scandals in the sports world over steroid abuse. The investigation, however, didn't ensnare any professional or college athletes after a review of thousands of customer names retrieved from targeted Web distributors.
Many of those who were arrested have pleaded guilty and been sentenced, authorities said.
Warren Abramson will plead guilty to five counts, including one for possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and three for having gun silencers. A court date to enter his plea before a judge has not yet been determined.
He faces up to 55 years in federal prison and fines totaling $1.25 million.
A phone message left for Abramson's attorney, Thomas Nishi, was not immediately returned.
Abramson, 34, offered steroids for sale on the Internet through his distribution company and leased a building in Compton to manufacture the substance as well as other drugs, the plea agreement said.
Abramson, a former military police officer, had more than 6400 grams of anabolic steroids that he intended to deliver to his clients in September 2007, prosecutors said. That amount could result in more than 255,000 dosage units.
Among the items seized from Abramson included three silencers, four firearms and more than 4,500 rounds of ammunition, court documents show.
Abramson was among more than 120 people who were arrested in 2007 as part of a global investigation into steroid trafficking over the Internet. Dubbed Operation Raw Deal, federal agents busted 56 labs and recovered more than 11 million doses of steroids and human growth hormone.
Abramson, who was soliciting customers from around the nation, was one of the larger steroid providers arrested in the investigation, law enforcement officials said.
What was touted at the time by federal authorities as the largest-ever crackdown on steroids followed a growing number of scandals in the sports world over steroid abuse. The investigation, however, didn't ensnare any professional or college athletes after a review of thousands of customer names retrieved from targeted Web distributors.
Many of those who were arrested have pleaded guilty and been sentenced, authorities said.
New steroid importation rules for Guernsey ( could this be what they plan for the rest of the UK ? )
People who want to import steroids into Guernsey must now apply for the appropriate licence.
With the 2012 London Olympics approaching, the UK government has tightened the law surrounding to the drugs.
The States has decided to follow suit and introduce licensing.
People who want to import steroids into Guernsey must now apply for the appropriate licence.
With the 2012 London Olympics approaching, the UK government has tightened the law surrounding to the drugs.
The States has decided to follow suit and introduce licensing.
With the 2012 London Olympics approaching, the UK government has tightened the law surrounding to the drugs.
The States has decided to follow suit and introduce licensing.
People who want to import steroids into Guernsey must now apply for the appropriate licence.
With the 2012 London Olympics approaching, the UK government has tightened the law surrounding to the drugs.
The States has decided to follow suit and introduce licensing.
Turkish Australian busted in Cyprus gets bail.
A court in the Turkish half of Cyprus has granted bail to Australian fugitive Hakan Ayik.
Ayik was detained in the Cypriot port of Kyrenia on December 20, after having been on the run since August, when New South Wales police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Local media reports say police seized equipment used to make narcotics and steroids, a laptop computer, and eight mobile phones from his hotel room.
Now the Cyprus court has granted Ayik bail of $63,000.
His passport was confiscated and he was barred from leaving the Turkish half of Cyprus until he stands trial on charges of illegally possessing medicines and pharmaceutical products.
He evaded capture in Cyprus a month ago and is on the most wanted list of the Australian Crime Commission.
Ayik, who was raised in Sydney and has a Turkish background, is closely connected to a Sydney bikie gang. He is known as a fitness fanatic and is a bar and brothel owner.
Ayik was detained in the Cypriot port of Kyrenia on December 20, after having been on the run since August, when New South Wales police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Local media reports say police seized equipment used to make narcotics and steroids, a laptop computer, and eight mobile phones from his hotel room.
Now the Cyprus court has granted Ayik bail of $63,000.
His passport was confiscated and he was barred from leaving the Turkish half of Cyprus until he stands trial on charges of illegally possessing medicines and pharmaceutical products.
He evaded capture in Cyprus a month ago and is on the most wanted list of the Australian Crime Commission.
Ayik, who was raised in Sydney and has a Turkish background, is closely connected to a Sydney bikie gang. He is known as a fitness fanatic and is a bar and brothel owner.
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