Australian customs released steroid seizure statistics.

Enforcement authorities believe the high Australian dollar and strong economy have made Australia a target market for drug exporters. The rate of seizure of so-called "performance and image enhancing drugs" - which include anabolic steroids and peptides, which are playing a central role in the drugs in sport scandal - was up 57 per cent in a year. Users of steroids, hormones and peptides – a category known as PIEDS – have virtually "direct and unlimited access" to a full range of products from around the world via online sales, the report found, with more than 91 per cent of detections in this category coming from parcel post. The number of detections of performance enhancing drugs at Australia's border has increased from just more than 1000 in 2002-03 to nearly 9000 in 2011-12. Mr Clare said the rapidly expanding market for PIEDS was evidence the drugs in sport investigation was not an overreaction, as some have claimed. "When the [drugs in sport] report was released earlier this year we made the point that there had been something like a 200 per cent increase in the importation of some performance and image enhancing drugs," he said. "Interestingly, in the last few months we have seen a drop in importations, which shows the impact of the release of that report only a few months ago."

Australian fined for stash of Thai steroids and valium.

A desire to be a competitive body builder and make some extra cash landed a 21-year-old Batemans Bay man in big trouble at Batemans Bay Local Court on Monday. Beau William Harvie, of Beach Road, was convicted and fined $1800 after being found guilty of nine charges relating to the possession and sale of restricted drugs, namely steroids and valium, which he said he had obtained from Thailand. The charges arose from a search of his home on October 28. He pleaded guilty to seven charges of possessing a prescribed restricted substance and for six of these charges he was fined $300 plus $83 court costs, and for the other charge he received a section nine 12-month bond. He was also found guilty of the sale of a restricted substance by a non-wholesaler and dealing with property suspected to be the proceeds of crime, for which he received 100 hours of community service. Police visited Mr Harvie’s home on October 28 and searched the house and his bedroom, where they found a number of bags under his bed containing vials of liquid. He was arrested and taken to Batemans Bay Police Station. Further investigation revealed that the bags in his room contained 224 whole diazepam (valium) tablets and many broken tablets, 445 dianabol-methandrosterolone tablets, 35 vials labelled Winstrol Depot Stanozol, 30 vials of nandro-nandrolene decanoate, 35 vials of testoviron depot 250 and 30 vials labelled Top Gear, testosterone propionate. When interviewed by police, Mr Harvie admitted to the possession, supply and administration of the prescribed restricted substances, and said he had received money for steroids from friends in the Batemans Bay area. He said he had $3000 from the sale of the substances in a Credit Union, and that he used the steroids himself because he was training for competitive body building. He said he had bought the substances in Phuket, Thailand, and twice got them through Australian customs in the past 12 months by putting them in massage oil bottles which he had cleaned out.

Australian busted for US peptides and Chinese steroid powders.

A 22 year old Homebush man has been fined $15,000 after pleading guilty to importing and possessing performance and image enhancing drugs. On 8 June 2011, Customs and Border Protection officers at the Sydney International Mail Facility examined a package addressed to the man from the United States. The package, which was declared as amino acid samples, contained four vials labelled GHRP6, an amino acid peptide that makes a human body begin secreting growth hormone. It is illegal to import GHRP6 without a permit. On 11 and 13 September 2011, Customs and Border Protection officers in Sydney examined two air cargo packages which had arrived from China also addressed to the man. Each of the packages contained 100 grams of white powder which testing revealed to be testosterone. It is illegal to import testosterone without a permit. Customs and Border Protection officers subsequently executed search and seizure warrants at the man’s residence in Homebush and found a quantity of anabolic and androgenic substances. The man was convicted in the Downing Centre Local Court for importing and possessing prohibited imports, namely anabolic and androgenic substances and for making a false statement to Customs and Border Protection officers. He was fined $15,000 and ordered to pay court costs of $332. Customs and Border Protection Director Investigations NSW Tony McSweeney said although these substances were often cheap and easy to purchase overseas, it is illegal to bring them into Australia without a permit. “While importers may find it cheap to buy these products overseas, they will not be so impressed with the fines they receive when they attempt to bring the products into Australia without a permit,” Mr McSweeney said.

Australian customs claims steroid seizures are up 300%

Demand for illegal performance-enhancing drugs is rocketing in Australia, with seizures of illegally imported steroids and human growth hormones more than trebling in the past three years. The Customs and Border Protection Service annual report revealed 8721 seizures of performance and image-enhancing drugs in 2011-12, up from 2696 in 2009-10. A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said easy access to the substances online was a growing concern. "Seizure statistics have increased in an environment where there is an increased demand for performance and image-enhancing type substances," he said. "The increase in seizures can be partly attributed to the easy access to these substances over the internet and their availability from many countries which do not have the same controls as Australia." Customs believes the ease of online purchasing was leading many users to mistakenly believe steroids were legal in Australia. "Customs and Border Protection has contacted a number of international sellers warning them of import restrictions on steroids in Australia," the spokesman said. A 28-year-old man was charged after a seizure at Perth Airport this month in which more than 2500 tablets and a number of vials of liquid, believed to be steroids, were found in his luggage. The rise in demand comes amid a growing global controversy over drug cheating, with Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France wins and banned for life from competitive cycling for blood doping. Murdoch University sports scientist Jeremiah Peiffer said there was little tolerance of drug cheats. "You look at all these performance enhancing drugs - whether it be steroids, growth hormones or EPO (erythropoietin) use and blood transfusions - it's important to recognise that it's a small sub-group," Dr Peiffer said. "What you're probably seeing is a small group of people who are trying to make the top end of something - they think they're missing something and drugs are the way to go."

Australians busted importing bulk repackaged injectables from Thailand.

A man and a woman will face court next month charged with the importation of steroids. On March 13, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service in Sydney intercepted three packages from Thailand containing 1.6 litres of a suspicious oily liquid. Subsequent testing by Customs and Border Protection officers revealed the liquid to be a type of steroid, with an estimated total value of $32,000. The officers referred the matter to NSW Police, and when one of the intended recipients was identified as an alleged associate of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, the Gangs Squad’s Strike Force Raptor launched an investigation. As a result of these inquiries, police executed search warrants at three addresses in Liverpool and Mt Pritchard yesterday morning. At one of the Liverpool addresses, police seized two litres of a liquid believed to be a steroid, as well as other prescribed restricted substances, an amount of cash, and empty vials and seals. Seized from the Mt Pritchard address were computers, phones, importation documents, two grams of cannabis and six capsules of a suspected steroid. Police arrested a man, 32, and a woman, 35, both from Liverpool, and a 35-year-old Mt Pritchard woman. They were all taken to Liverpool Police Station. The man, an alleged Comanchero associate, was charged with two counts of importation of prohibited imports (steroids) and three counts of possess restricted substance. The Mt Pritchard woman was charged with two counts of importation of prohibited imports (steroids) and possess prohibited drug. They were both granted conditional bail to appear at Campbelltown Court on June 19. The second woman was released pending further inquiries.

Australian press covers trendy steroid vacations to Thailand.

While police in Australia warn of a growing trade in steroids - and are increasingly finding them during raids aimed at party drugs - health experts say the products can cause life-threatening heart and liver damage, as well as baldness and infertility. But in Thailand, price is part of the allure: during a two-week investigation, this reporter visited Bangkok and Pattaya pharmacies that sell some steroid brands for 10 times less than what they fetch on Sydney's black market. The rise of the steroid holiday was highlighted last year, when Australia's No. 1 amateur bodybuilding celebrity, Aziz ''Zyzz'' Shavershian, died of an ''undiagnosed'' heart condition in a Bangkok sauna. He died weeks after his brother, Said Shavershian, or ''Chestbrah'', had been convicted for steroid possession in Sydney. Steroids. Bangkok, Thailand. pic shows an ex pat australian with stroids purchased at a regular pharmacy in Bangkok. Rise of the steroid holiday ... everyday gym users are travelling to Asia and ‘‘stacking’’ a dangerous cocktail of steroids. Photo: Anthony Johnson Numerous Australians in Thailand now tell The Sun-Herald of how they buy and consume their steroids offshore rather than end up with a criminal record at home. In 2006 the bodybuilder John Hurlock was arrested and charged at his Townsville home for smuggling steroids into Australia. But Hurlock fled the country before he could be prosecuted. Today, he lives in exile in central Bangkok, where he buys the same drugs over the counter at his local chemist. ''I ordered steroids online and the second time I did so, the Queensland cops came crashing through my door with sniffer dogs. I find that crazy,'' Hurlock told The Sun-Herald in Bangkok. Each week, he ''cycles'', which involves using a combination of Deca-Durabolin, testosterone cypionate and trenbolone, a powerful horse drug that is widely considered the best anabolic steroid on the black market, but the worst for side effects. ''Why should I not be able to take it, as and when I want?'' Hurlock asks. ''I'm not hurting anybody and, as an older bloke, these drugs have particular benefits. The deca works wonders for my joints and shoulder injuries.'' He is quick, however, to criticise younger users: ''They are arriving here en masse and you can spot them a mile off. They're like kids in candy stores. They get so dosed up, they leave here looking like giant water bombs with acne. Vanity is destroying them before they've even hit adulthood.'' Hurlock is referring to Australians like Dorn. When The Sun-Herald met Dorn in Pattaya, he was bulking up on his latest ''roid vacation''. Every 72 hours, he gets ''juiced up'' on testosterone cypionate and trenbolone. ''Anything I want, everything that could potentially land me in hot water back in Australia, is freely available over the counter here in chemists, no questions asked. I take the steroids, I train and party in paradise and then I go home.'' He believes Australians would be surprised by how many young people are flying to Thailand mainly to take steroids, and ''even more shocked'' to learn how widespread the trend has become back home. ''I'm here [in Pattaya] for three weeks this time round. This is my fourth trip and I've taken steroids each time. At first it was trial and error. Some pharmacies sell fake stuff so it was a case of finding a brand and chemist I could trust.'' Over time - and after extensive internet research about other users' cycles - Dorn says he increased his dosage to ''maximise results''. ''People are paying $200 for a 10-millilitre bottle of testosterone in Sydney whereas here you can walk into a chemist and buy it for between $20 and $30. I don't use in Australia and wouldn't even know where to get it because I don't need the trouble. I'm happy doing it here where nobody bothers me.'' A hormone expert at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, Associate Professor Katherine Samaras, says in poor countries ''anything can be bought for a song, whether it's people, sex, or anabolic steroids''. She warns that, aside from triggering ''behavioural issues'', steroid abuse causes ''irreversible damage'' to the heart, liver and body, including ''long-term testicular wasting''. ''Stupid people do stupid things,'' she says. ''If people want to flout laws that are designed to protect them and head to poor, lawless countries to destroy their bodies, there's only so much you can do.'' In some respects ''juicers'', as they are known, who travel to Thailand for steroids, are no different to the many thousands of Australians who head there on cosmetic holidays. Both groups view it as their basic right to sculpt or modify their bodies in any way they see fit. Both choose Thailand because it is cheap, with a tropical holiday thrown in. But for steroids users, it is a safe haven to inject legally. The latest Australian Crime Commission statistics show there were 5561 border detections of ''performance- and image-enhancing drugs'' in the last financial year, a 106 per cent rise on the previous year. More than 90 per cent of those seizures were postal orders from websites in countries such as the US, Hong Kong, China and Thailand, where laws are more relaxed. In the previous year, plane passengers had accounted for most seizures. In Australia these drugs are only legally available through tightly monitored prescriptions on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Used to stimulate bone growth and appetite, they are occasionally prescribed to short children and to people with chronic wasting conditions such as cancer and AIDS. Illegal importers face up to $110,000 or five years' jail. While Michael Dorn says he has never suffered side effects, one of Australia's leading endocrinologists, Professor Ken Ho, warns users are unknowingly inducing a ''profound state of testosterone deficiency''. ''The body regulates the production of testosterone to a level which optimises health,'' Ho says. ''If those levels exceed what is ideal, there are internal biological mechanisms to control that. So when people load their bodies with huge amounts, the body senses there is too much and turns off its own factory.'' Once that happens, ''health goes down the gurgler''. ''Users want more of what they had. Their minds start telling them, 'This must be good stuff because I feel better again.' ''It becomes a form of addiction. This is what's happening on these trips. This is what's happening in gyms across Australia, and this is also what's happening in so-called anti-ageing clinics that currently sell these substances under the guise of good health. There is no smart way to take these drugs. It's a shady business.'' Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/health/steroid-vacation-20120526-1zblt.html#ixzz1w0qUExSv

Australian supplement store gets controlled delivery of Chinese steroids.

An alleged nominee of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Gang has been charged with the importation and possession of steroids following a co-operative operation by Customs and Border Protection and the Gang’s Squad’s Strike Force Raptor.

Earlier this week, Customs and Border Protection intercepted a package from China through international mail containing 50 packets of anabolic steroids. Each packet contained 50 capsules of the prescribed restricted substance.

With the package destined for Sydney’s south, the NSW Police Force was notified and Strike Force Raptor officers replaced the contents with an inert substance.

Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 26 October 2011), the package was delivered to a supplement store in Croydon Street, Cronulla, with officers from Strike Force Raptor raiding the premises a short time later.

A 26-year-old man alleged to be a Rebels nominee was arrested at the store, and a further small amount of steroids was seized.

A subsequent search warrant on a home at Lynch Avenue, Caringbah, resulted in a small amount of steroids and other items being seized

The 26-year-old man was taken to Miranda Police Station and charged with importing a prohibited import and possessing a prescribed restricted substance. He was granted bail to appear at Sutherland Local Court on 17 November 2011.

Inquiries into a second resident who was not home at the time of the warrant are continuing.

Strike Force Raptor was established by the State Crime Command’s Gangs Squad in 2009 and is a proactive, high-impact operation targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs and their alleged associated criminal enterprises.

Big shipment of generic ED products seized at JFK.

Federal customs authorities seized thousands of counterfeit erectile dysfunction pills at John F. Kennedy International Airport this week, authorities said.

Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection flagged a cargo shipment from Hong King labeled "Farsan Sweet Dryfruit" for inspection on Thursday, February 17, 2011. When officers opened the container, they found almost 20,000 pills inside, authorities said.

Officers examined the pills and identified them as counterfeit sildenafil , tadalafil , and vardenafil -- erectile dysfunction drugs marketed in the United States under the brand names Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, respectively.

Authorities seized the pills because counterfeits and generics are considered violations of trademark and FDA regulations in the U.S.

"The illicit trade in pharmaceuticals poses a serious health and safety risk," said Robert Perez, the director of field operations for the local field office of Customs and Border Protection. "CBP officers in the greater New York area are some of the best trained law enforcement officers in the nation who are dedicated to their mission of intercepting unlawful items that adversely affect our nation's communities."

CBP officials estimated the value of the pills at more than $220,000.

Spanish Police launch anti-doping crackdown with Operation Contra.

This day dawned with a new doping-related news. The Police had made seven arrests in connection with this operation connected with doping, especially at amateur level. As responsible for this security force explained, the operation result of the complaint arose from a professional cyclist who had received offers for banned substances via email.

Among the seven detained was former professional cyclist (he ran in the Kelme team, involved in various plots of doping) Jordi Riera, formed in the mountain bike and had returned to this discipline, as we mentioned a few days ago, within the team Tomas Bell, which opened last weekend at the BMW Open test Lladó, appointment could not finish with a mechanical problem.

As research has transpired, Riera allegedly supplied substances, it acquired by buying another of the accused, other athletes, including a 17-year-old who trained and now has come of age. Among consumers have athletes in sports such as cycling, running or swimming.

Of the seven arrested, five are now released with charges after declaring before the judge, while the other two are waiting to be summoned to testify.

As reports Europa Press, the records have been found anabolic steroids, growth hormone, stimulants and blood products (46 syringes of EPO), injectable Clenbuterol and other series of drugs in tablets or injections.

While the operation is a new example of policing on such networks, their presentation again to be somewhat sensationalist as evidenced by the fact that the only implied that it has remained anonymous is Jordi Riera. The rest involved (GB Michelangelo Gironella, BT Xavier de Barcelona, Sant Adrià MP Sheila Javier Gironella MC, Isidro and Ivan Cerdanyola CM Terrassa GB) only has transcended his name, initials and place of residence.

Then you have available the video provided by the Catalan police on this operation:

Australian steroid user's clever excuse fails in court.

An Australian man has faced drug charges at court after being caught with Viagra and steroids. David Roy Mannion pleaded guilty at Gladstone Magistrates Court on Tuesday to possessing dangerous drugs and unlawful possession of restricted drugs.

Police Prosecutor Sergeant Mick O'Rourke said Gladstone police executed a search warrant at a Tank Street address, Gladstone, about 1.30pm on Friday, January 28.

Sgt O'Rourke said police found a tablet, which was identified to be Viagra. He said they also found steroids in a drawer in the bedroom during the search. Sgt O'Rourke told the court Mannion said his friend was the owner of the steroids.

Mannion's duty lawyer Brad Krebs, of Appleton Krebs Lawyers, said his client's friend gave him the Viagra tablet as a joke.

Mr Krebs also said his client's friend asked him to store the steroids so his wife would not find out he was using them. Magistrate Mark Morrow fined Mannion $500 and a conviction was recorded.