Three Candian UGL steroid lab operators make court appearance.

Three Halifax men accused of conspiring to import and traffic steroids appeared in court Tuesday in person or through a lawyer. Kevin John O’Keefe, 29, James Douglas Rae, 30, and Andrew Paul Scott, 27, all face a dozen conspiracy charges in connection with police raids at a pair of Halifax addresses in March and April. Lawyer Pat Atherton appeared in Halifax provincial court for Rae. Scott has yet to retain counsel while O’Keefe told the judge he will be hiring Trevor McGuigan. O’Keefe, who also faces two charges of breaching bail conditions, will return to court next Tuesday, while Rae and Scott are due back on July 30. On March 20, members of the RCMP synthetic drug unit executed a search warrant at an apartment building on Lower Water Street. RCMP said they seized a variety of materials used in the production of anabolic steroids, including roughly 60,000 empty and 1,000 full gel-caps, three gel-capping machines, 5,000 empty vials and unused labels. About five litres of unknown liquids and one kilogram of an unknown powder were taken to the RCMP lab for analysis. Police also discovered spreadsheets consistent with a steroid and supplement business. The investigation continued and another search was conducted April 11 at a residence on St Margarets Bay Road.

Canadian source gets two year sentence.

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to two years in prison for an elaborate steroid smuggling operation that went undetected for nearly a decade. Pavel Louda, 38, pleaded guilty to charges under the federal Custom’s Act and was seeking a conditional sentence that allowed him to remain free in the community. Instead, he was hauled away in handcuffs Friday. "Returning Mr. Louda to his home to serve this sentence would essentially be returning him to the scene of the crime," said provincial court Judge Carena Roller. Louda admitted to bringing in hundreds of shipments of anabolic steroids between 2001 and 2009, mostly from the Czech Republic. He set up numerous post office boxes under a variety of fake names and used several different Canadian ports of entry, court was told. The drugs were then sold on the local black market to many of Louda’s friends and associates. "The mail-order steroid business is now a multimillion-dollar industry in North America," Roller said Friday. Louda was previously convicted in 2002 of steroid smuggling and was given 24 days in jail plus a $5,000 fine. He then applied for – and received – a federal pardon while continuing to break the law. "He has proven himself to be very dedicated to his criminal enterprise," said Roller. The investigation began in 2007 when several packages containing small amounts of steroids were seized at the border, court was told. Investigators used a variety of techniques to catch Louda in the act, including surveillance of him regularly using a postal box at a Winnipeg store, meeting with various buyers and bank records which showed he made close to $200,000 in European wire transfers over the years. Louda admits to being an avid health and fitness buff who was hooked on steroids himself but eventually stopped using and was simply selling to others for profit. His arrest was one of the first of its kind in Manitoba. Louda faced a maximum penalty of five years behind bars. The Crown had asked for a three-year sentence.

Canadian busted for steroids in 2002 finally getting sentenced.

Federal prosecutors are pushing for a Winnipeg “exercise nut” to serve three years in prison for running an illegal steroid smuggling and trafficking operation for nearly a decade. Pavel Louda, 38, pleaded guilty to a smuggling charge under Canada’s Customs Act. He was previously convicted of a similar offence. In 2002 he spent 24 days in jail after being caught smuggling $12,000 worth of anabolic steroids while returning from a trip to the Czech Republic. Between September 2001 up until his July 2009 arrest, Louda used Winnipeg post office boxes registered under fake names to have unregulated ’roids sent to him from European nations, according to the Crown. Between 2004 and 2009, Canada Border Services Agency officers made 198 seizures of steroid packages linked to Louda’s activities, court heard. “That’s what we caught,” prosecutor Raegan Rankin said. CBSA investigators also found Louda had made nearly $189,000 in wire transfers to the Czech Republic and other European locations over that same timeframe, said Rankin. The CBSA embarked on an undercover probe in 2007 after making a considerable number of steroid seizures from smaller-sized mail packages in Montreal and Winnipeg. They began watching a post office box at a Shoppers Drug Mart on McPhillips Street where Louda was seen picking up and dropping off packages at a steady clip. They also covertly watched him meet with people in cars at parking lots while carrying packages with him, court heard. A subsequent raid by CBSA agents of Louda’s home in July 2009 netted them evidence of Louda’s mail-order steroid racket, including “tally sheets” indicating who some of the drugs were going to and who owed him what. “He’s not just trafficking,” Rankin said. “He orders, he pays, he has (the steroids) delivered to him and then he disburses to other people. He is the whole show,” Rankin told Judge Careena Roller. At least a few injectable vials seized were filled with alcohol or vegetable oil, court heard. They presented potential major health risks, said the Crown. “This is what he’s giving people. He’s going to have people inject Crisco, essentially, into their bodies. Did he know that’s what they were? No. But did he care? Clearly not,” said Rankin. Defence lawyer Iain MacNair described Louda as an “exercise nut” who is “deeply ashamed” of his actions. He only sold to a small group of people he knew personally through bodybuilding circles, MacNair said. The not-typically addictive drugs don’t present the same “social impact” that cocaine or heroin do, said MacNair. Those who bought them were aware of the health risks, he added. MacNair asked the court to impose a conditional sentence in the range of nine to 15 months, along with a cash fine. Roller said she was concerned at Louda’s “audacity” at applying for a pardon on his 2002 conviction in 2009 while still engaged in his smuggling operation. “I have huge concerns about reoffending,” she said. Roller reserved her decision.

Canadian steroid dealer arrested after classified website ads.

An online advertisement offering steroids for sale has led to a Cambridge man facing charges.

Earlier this month, Guelph Police became aware of a Kijiji advertisement offering steroids for sale.

Police arranged to meet with a man in connection with the advertisement in the parking lot of a Guelph gym.

The man was searched and police found and seized four different steroids worth about $655 on the street.

A 21-year-old man from Cambridge man is charged with two counts of trafficking a controlled substance and two counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.

He will appear in court in April.

Canadian Olympic wrestler caught doping.

The Olympic dreams of wrestler and Essex native Colin Daynes are over after he failed a drug test and has been banned from the sport for two years, it was announced Monday.

The 37-year-old Daynes, inducted into the Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame only last year, was banned from competition by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports after failing an in-competition drug test Dec.18 at the Canadian wrestling qualification trials in Winnipeg where he had won gold in the 74 kg division.

Daynes tested positive for boldenone, drostanolone, furosemide and tamoxifen, which each appear on the World AntiDoping Agency's list of prohibited substances.

Boldenone and drostanolone are anabolic steroids. Furosemide is a diuretic while tamoxifen is an estrogen receptor modulator that is generally used to mitigate the physical side-effects of steroid use.

Daynes waived his right to a hearing, acknowledged the anti-doping rule violation, and accepted the ban.

"I was trying to recover from an injury, so I was taking something," Daynes said.

Reached by The Star Monday night, Daynes said he was trying to recover from a partial tear to his bicep and an elbow problem in hopes of getting to the Games in London this year.

"That was the advice of the naturopathic doctor I was seeing," said Daynes, who now lives and works in real estate and renovations in Vancouver.

"I didn't understand it was banned. If I had, I wouldn't have competed."

Daynes was trying to represent Canada for the second time at the Olympics. He competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where he finished 14th in the 68 kilogram division.

Daynes, who was scheduled to attend the Pan American Wrestling Championships next month, added, "There really is no defence to it.

"Either it's in your blood or not. Either it's in your system or not. It was a banned substance."

Daynes, who has also competed in mixed martial arts, mounted a wrestling comeback in 2008 and won the Olympic Trials, but also needed to qualify internationally to get to the event.

That bid came up short and this was to be his last Olympic effort, but the ban effectively ends his days of competing.

The ban is backdated and will expire Dec. 18, 2013.

"I was hoping for a last crack," Daynes said. "This puts it out of the question. I'm too old and it's time to shut it down."

Daynes had been told earlier by the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association about the ban and contacted Bill Hogarth, who coached him in high school at Essex.

"It's unfortunate," Hogarth said. "It's kind of a tough way to end the whole thing and it's too bad. There was no intent to defraud anyone."

Hogarth hopes this incident doesn't tarnish Daynes' reputation. "I'm sure it won't," Hogarth said.

A high school star, Daynes attended Brock University and won four Canadian Interuniveristy Sports national titles in four weight classes. He finished his career with 62 gold, 11 silver and five bronze medals.

"Yeah, for sure, I still hold my head high," Daynes said.

Canadian steroid dealer asks judge to give him a break.

A Maugerville man who pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking steroids and 10 counts of conspiracy to traffic steroids told a judge Monday he isn't a professional criminal.

"I'm an intelligent man who did a stupid thing," said 36-year-old Spencer Gordon Court.

"I'm here to take my punishment ... There's no question what I did was wrong."

But he also asked Judge Julian Dickson for a conditional sentence so he could continue to operate his legal fitness business.

The court was told he has six employees, but the business will close if he's sent to jail.

"I'm running a clear show - crystal clear," said Court.

He also said he's paying voluntary child support for his two-year-old daughter.

Court said he was working hard and running a successful fitness business prior to his arrest.

But he said he made the mistake of being too flashy with his money and began to attract the wrong crowd to his gym.

"I was consumed by the fame," said the former member of the Canadian Forces, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a closely-shaved head.

He said people in his gym began asking him for steroids to help them grow muscle mass fast.

Defence lawyer William Stephenson earlier told the court his client first started using steroids in 2000 when he was in the military and was looking for an edge when weightlifting.

Court said he began selling steroids in his gym even though he made little profit from it compared to his legitimate business.

He said he hated other illegal drugs, and he can be heard saying that in police wire taps.

But he said he considered steroids to be a grey area when it came to breaking the law.

That changed when his business and home were raided by police in 2007.

"It was scary ... It was a big wake-up call," Court said.

"The big lesson is there's no grey in the law."

Court said since 2007 he has worked hard to re-establish his business and reported in regularly with the police.

He said he's lost a lot of friends and suffered public ridicule.

"I took a media beating," he said.

He said his business has suffered and while he continued to pay his employees, at times he didn't have anything to eat.

But he also said he wasn't asking for pity.

Stephenson said steroids aren't as dangerous as heroin or cocaine.

"They're at the bottom of the serious totem pole," he said.

The defence lawyer said Court sold only to people who approached him, never sold to anyone underage and didn't sell on a large scale.

He said that huge amounts of money weren't involved. For example, 10 bottles of 100 tablets each of a steroid was worth only $4,000.

"It sounds a lot worse that it is," he said.

Stephenson said this is Court's first offence and he isn't a danger to the public.

"He's learned his lesson," he said.

"Protection of the public is not an issue."

He requested a sentence of six months of house arrest.

Federal Crown prosecutor Leonard MacKay disagreed steroids weren't dangerous.

He said their use can cause in health problems and can even result in death.

Undercover police officers purchased steroids from Court on two occasions for the amount of $1,000 and $4,000, said MacKay.

Police wiretaps of Court talking to a man in Ontario who supplied him with steroids talking about a shipment seized by police being worth $10,000.

MacKay said Court was involved in selling tens of thousands of pills, although the Crown didn't put a value on the illegal drugs.

"The amounts involved by all accounts are large amounts," he said.

MacKay asked the court to impose a two-year prison sentence.

If Dickson considered a conditional sentence, MacKay requested a fine of tens of thousands of dollars also be considered as deterrence.

The judge said he must balance the issue of the fairness of the sentence with the issue of public deterrence and the scale of Court's operation.

"This was no mom-and-pop operation," he said.

Dickson reserved his decision on sentence until Wednesday morning.

Canadian man sentenced to 18 months for selling steroids

"A North Vancouver man arrested for selling steroids has been sentenced to 18 months probation.

Joao Melo appeared in North Vancouver provincial court Friday, July 24, after pleading guilty earlier in June."

According to court documents, Melo and Tran were found in possession of "a derivative of an Anabolic steroid" — a controlled substance — for the purposes of trafficking.

Charges against Tran ( his wife ) were dropped.

HGH pill spammers forced to return $3.7 million.

"A U.S. district court has ordered key players in an international spam ring to give up $3.7 million they made by sending out illegal email messages pitching bogus Hoodia weight-loss products and a "human growth hormone" pill they claimed reversed the aging process.

In a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) law enforcement action, the court found that the five defendants, located in Canada and St. Kitts, violated the FTC Act and CAN-SPAM Act by participating in the spam operation. The court order bars the defendants from violating the CAN-SPAM Act and from making false or unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits of any food, drug, or dietary supplement."