AND SOME MORE.....................
Federal law officers, who have busted a Connecticut man and five others accused of peddling steroids on MySpace.com and other Internet sites, are now focusing their attention on the dozens of state residents who bought the illegal drugs.
U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor wants to know whether children or teenagers, coaches or teachers were among the patrons. The case is a local offshoot of an international steroids crackdown that has netted dozens of arrests.
Of the six people charged in the Connecticut case, four men - three from Arizona and one from Pennsylvania - were indicted together on charges that they sold steroids through a MySpace.com profile called "anabolic-ss."
A fifth man, Alan R. Blair of Wilton, pleaded guilty Monday in Hartford to distributing human growth hormone through the website
www.jintropin.com.
A sixth man, from Florida, pleaded guilty to mailing steroids to buyers, including Connecticut residents, who contacted him through his MySpace profile.
The use of the MySpace site "raises a red flag that they are trying to market to minors," O'Connor said Monday at a press conference.
He said agents will work to identify the buyers, an unusual step because possession of a small amount of steroids is a misdemeanor that federal law officers do not normally pursue.
"But they're going to get a knock on the door, just to wake some folks up. If they're minors, then we have an obligation to let their parents know," O'Connor said.
He said there's no evidence that any professional athletes are among the Connecticut buyers
The 18-month Connecticut investigation, dubbed Operation Phony Pharm, involved local FBI agents who posed as online customers and ordered steroids over the Internet. The tactic was similar to what The Courant did in a November 2005 series that helped to shed light on the black-market steroids racket.
The FBI's Connecticut probe parallels an international crackdown by federal law officers on steroid labs and distributors that was announced Monday.
That effort, dubbed Operation Raw Deal, has resulted in more than 120 arrests and the dismantling of 56 steroids labs.
Raw Deal, O'Connor said, focused on manufacturers and major suppliers in China, the U.S., Canada and elsewhere, while Phony Pharm targeted distributors.
O'Connor noted that the four-man ring bought raw steroid powder from China and manufactured anabolic steroids in home labs. He said the drugs could easily have been contaminated.
The steroids that The Courant purchased online for the 2005 series were tainted with everything from heavy metals to a banned, cancer-causing cattle fattener, tests found.
"This is a public safety issue," O'Connor said. "That's one reason we want to do this outreach [to the buyers]. There could be all sorts of health concerns."
O'Connor was joined at the press conference by Kimberly Mertz, head of the FBI in Connecticut, and by officials of the Food and Drug Administration's criminal investigation division.
Blair, 55, was the only Connecticut resident among the six charged in Operation Phony Pharm. Authorities said he worked out of his house on Mayflower Lane in Wilton, assessed at $500,000, and connected buyers to China-based suppliers of HGH - human growth hormone.
The FDA had warned Blair as far back as five years ago to stop his activities.
"He probably thought the most he could get was a fine. Now he realizes there are real consequences," O'Connor said.
Blair must forfeit $260,000 to the government and faces up to five years in prison. Blair's attorney, Lisa Scolari of New York City, did not immediately return a telephone message Monday. A message left at Blair's home was not returned.
The four men indicted Friday on distribution charges were Edwin Porter, 41, and Matthew Peltz, 36, both of Chandler Ariz.; Tyler Lunn, 27, of Phoenix; and Walter Corey, 37, of Charleroi, Pa.
Brian Tompkins, 29, of Deltona, Fla., pleaded guilty to one count of distributing steroids.
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Raid on steroid 'factory' nabs two
Pearland couple among 124 caught in a nationwide DEA crackdown
A Pearland couple accused of cranking out at least 50,000 steroid pills an hour from a covert, home-based factory were among those arrested by federal agents who Monday announced the results of a nationwide crackdown on the performance-enhancing drug.
Authorities contend that throughout Kenneth Hebert's home were four industrial pill presses and supplies used to make the steroids from materials acquired from China.
The raw anabolic supplies arrived in the mail, were converted to injectable steroids as well as pills, and later distributed by the U.S. mail and private courier services, authorities said.
"It is alleged he was an importer and distributor of anabolic steroids throughout the United States," said Michael Dellacorte, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
Hebert, 36, and Leticia Zamora, 36, identified as his wife, were quietly arrested early Thursday and charged with possession and conspiracy with intent to distribute anabolic steroids.
They apparently caught the attention of authorities during Operation Raw Deal, a nationwide investigation that has resulted in the arrest of at least 124 people and the seizure of 56 clandestine laboratories and 11.4 million doses of steroids, according to the DEA.
Steroids have been on the public's mind for the last few years, with numerous instances of the performance-enhancing drugs being used by everyone from professional athletes to high school students.
Authorities would not say whether they have identified anyone who used steroids produced at Hebert's home.
In addition to the Houston area, arrests have been made in New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, California, Maryland and Missouri, according to the Justice Department.
The cases are not all part of the same conspiracy, but all have ties to China, where the materials were said to have been produced in rogue laboratories.
The Pearland-handled anabolic steroids — part of a family of compounds that include the male hormone testosterone that can pump up muscles but bring on a host of life-threatening ailments — were often packaged to look as if they were produced by a legitimate manufacturer and pushed on the Web under such names as Phalco Labs and Texstar Lab.
"Fifteen or 20 years ago it was a dealer at the gym, now there is another element," said Dellacorte.
Word of the investigation has spread among the Internet bulletin boards where the products were said to be pushed.
"Have been wanting to give that stuff a go myself," a signer known as Mixer said in a message apparently about Phalco. "It appears one of the distributors has just been popped tho, so be careful who you deal with."
On Monday afternoon, a private delivery service message on Hebert's door noted $102 was due on delivery of a package, for which neither contents nor the sender were noted.
Hebert's laboratory was housed in a rambling one-story frame home with a wooded front yard in the 2500 block of O'Day Road.
Outside are not the gates and guards one might expect from a covert distributor described by the DEA as a "big fish," but a children's basketball goal. A dog barked through the fence.
Neighbor Addie Killian said the couple had lived there for about two years and were good neighbors.
"She was always out working in the yard with her two small children," she said of Zamora. She recalled how last winter Zamora helped her clear tree limbs that fell during a storm.
Killian noted that UPS, FedEx and other delivery trucks made frequent stops at the residence.
She was amazed, she said, when DEA and other federal agents arrested the couple. Agents carried out equipment that looked like robots, each about the size of a person and equipped with cooling fans.
"To think that something like that was going on 40 feet from my bedroom window," Killian said.
Also nearby is a sports complex — Pitch, Putt and Play — which has batting cages and a miniature golf course. Assistant manager Joel Cotter said he never heard from the couple.
"They weren't like the people who were there before," he said of previous occupants. "They never complained about the noise when we had a band here."
Among the agencies involved in Operation Raw Deal are the DEA, Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the Postal Service.
"Clandestine drug labs manufacture adulterated and dangerous products," said Don DeGabrielle, the Houston-based U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. "This case demonstrates successful efforts of various federal agencies to disrupt the international drug trade that so adversely impacts our society."
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Two Downriver men are among 124 people nationwide busted in an international probe of underground trafficking in anabolic steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs, federal authorities said Monday.
Authorities also said they discovered a vacant house in Taylor on Thursday containing the largest clandestine steroid laboratory ever found in Michigan. They said they seized a large quantity of steroids in powder, liquid and tablets and packaging materials.
The dosage units we're talking about are huge," said Rich Isaacson, spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Detroit. "We found almost 400,000 dosage units alone in powder steroids."
Arrested in Michigan were Timothy Edward Smith, 31, of Taylor, and Jeffrey Lee Mitchell, 35, of Brownstown Township.
Authorities said Smith bought steroids from suppliers in China and England and sold them to customers who frequented Internet bodybuilder chat boards. They said Mitchell was his business associate.
Smith and his company, U.S. Pharmaceuticals, are accused of importing 17 pounds of anabolic steroids from suppliers in China from March to July.
The men were indicted Sept. 18 in U.S. District Court in San Diego and were arrested without incident Thursday during raids on their homes.
The DEA said Smith leased the Taylor lab.
They were freed on $10,000 unsecured bonds during appearances Thursday in U.S. District Court in Detroit. Their lawyer for their Detroit arraignment, deputy federal defender Stacey Studnicki, declined comment Monday.
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Four people were charged in Missouri as part of an international investigation of illicit steroid labs, U.S. Attorney John Wood announced Monday.
The four were among more than 120 people arrested in an 18-month investigation called Operation Raw Deal, which involved nine foreign countries and led to the seizure of 56 laboratories in the this country for manufacturing anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
The investigation netted 11.4 million steroid doses, $6.5 million in cash, vehicles, boats, pill presses and weapons, the Drug Enforcement Administration said.
Indictments returned Friday in the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City charged Bryan G. Wilson, 38, of Kansas City and his ex-wife, April Wilson, 32, of Columbia with conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids. Bryan Wilson also is charged with one count of distributing anabolic steroids.
Mikal Schrage, 28, of Nixa, and Jason Varner, 33, of Jefferson City, were charged in separate criminal complaints with possessing anabolic steroids with intent to distribute.
The Wilsons are alleged to have conspired to distribute steroids from 2003 to Sept. 15 by wiring money to sources in Qingdao, China, and receiving raw steroid powder in return.
Bryan Wilson allegedly used locations in Clay and Boone counties to turn the raw steroid powder to pill and liquid anabolic steroids. Then, operating under the names Pro Pharm, Pro Pharm Labs and Palmco, Inc., the Wilsons distributed the anabolic steroid products to customers throughout the United States, Wood said.
After Bryan Wilson's arrest, officers seized two 200-pound pill presses, other laboratory equipment and $60,000 from his apartment in north Kansas City.
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21 people charged in Calif. over steroid links
At least 21 people were charged last week by federal grand juries in California in connection with steroid manufacturing or distribution. A couple charged in San Jose with distributing steroids for an Internet company called Stallion Labs were arrested Sept. 16 at the Otay Mesa border crossing near San Diego as they returned to the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico. Both pleaded not guilty at their arraignments last week in San Diego and are free on bond pending their return to Northern California, according to one of their attorneys, Howard Frank.
Seven indictments were also filed last week in San Diego against 14 people running networks in other states, including Illinois, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
Twelve have been arrested on money laundering and conspiracy charges linked to the importation and distribution of steroids, authorities said. They face up to 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines if convicted; additionally, the distribution companies may be fined up to $4 million.
Two of those were arrested in the resort area of Phuket, Thailand, and are awaiting extradition in connection with a ring that sourced raw steroid powder in China, had it shipped to underground labs in New Jersey and Washington and then sent it to Internet customers from Las Vegas, according to U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt.
Federal authorities in Sacramento announced two arrests. Ryan Hanson, 27, of Chico, pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of possessing anabolic steroids with intent to distribute. He had been under investigation since May as part of the worldwide probe, officials said. Hanson, who worked as a bouncer at a Chico bar, was released on $50,000 bail.
Separately, Fresno grand jury indicted Tyler Stumbo, 23, of Bakersfield, also on Thursday. He was arrested in Berkeley the same day and freed on $100,000 bond for a Sept. 27 court appearance.
A search of Stumbo's Bakersfield home uncovered an underground steroid laboratory with steroidal powder, liquid and pills in various stages of production, authorities said. They seized 160 vials containing about 15.5 pounds of steroids.
In addition, information from the search and Stumbo's arrest led to the seizure of 25 pounds of steroid powder in Tennessee, said U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott. His arrest was the result of an investigation that began in January
Each man faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Another investigation in San Jose led to Thursday's arrest of three people who allegedly sold steroids and human-growth hormone from a local fitness store. According to a criminal complaint, the defendants stole some of their human-growth hormone drugs from the biotechnology firm Genentech.