A Lebanese man pleaded guilty to smuggling 1,364 ampoules of anabolic steroids into Australia. Youssef Amoud was ordered to pay more than $23,000 in fines and penalties by the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney. The Lebanese citizen attempted to smuggle over a thousand ampoules of Testosterone Enanthate manufactured by the Iranian Aburaihan Company into Australia while traveling on a temporary visa. Amoud was busted on January 23, 2009 after arriving at the Sydney International Airport on a flight originating out of Lebanon (”$23,000 penalty for smuggling steroids,” March 11).
A Customs and Border Protection investigation led to Mr Youssef Amoud being charged with importing prohibited imports contrary to section 233(1)(b) and making a false statement contrary to section 234(1)(d)(i) of the Customs Act 1901.
Customs and Border Protection officers conducted a search of Mr Amoud’s baggage, acting on a referral from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, when he arrived at Sydney International Airport on a flight from Lebanon on Friday 23 January 2009.
The anabolic steroid ampoules were discovered during a search of Amoud’s luggage hidden in several areas including the base of a table lamp, a toy clock and a digital box receiver. Australian Customs and Border Protection performed laboratory analysis on the liquid substance and confirmed that the ampoules contained testosterone enanthate as indicated by the writing on the actual ampoules. The 1,364 testosterone ampoules confiscated were purportedly valued at almost $23,000 on the street.
An Australian woman and a Lebanese man were arrested at the Sydney Airport after attempting to smuggle a substantial amount of anabolic steroids. The man and woman arrived in Sydney on two separate flights from Lebanon on February 17th and February 18th, respectively. Australian Customs and Border Protection discovered a total of almost 3,000 ampoules of injectable testosterone enanthate manufactured by the Aburaihan Company (Iran) and almost 5,000 oral steroid tablets in their luggage. The steroids were hidden inside an “art clock” that resembled a very large mobile telephone that was branded with NOKNA instead of NOKIA. A customs official claimed that the two cases are completely unrelated (”Man and woman arrested over smuggling steroids into Sydney,” February 19).
A 33-year-old Australian woman arrived at Sydney airport yesterday and a search of her luggage allegedly revealed 2,205 vials of testosterone and 4,800 tablets. [...]
Her arrest followed that of a 32-year-old Lebanese man who arrived at Sydney airport from Lebanon on Tuesday.
Customs alleged 497 vials of testosterone were detected in his luggage after he arrived on a flight from Lebanon.
Australian customs spokesperson reminds the media that protecting the Australian border from anabolic steroids is a high priority for the Australian government agency Read more
Sydney District Court Judge Michael Finnane rejected defense arguments that a “rampage of rape” perpetrated by James Nigel Stephens was caused by a “very, very nasty cocktail” of anabolic steroids and alcohol. Judge Finnane showed no leniency in sentencing Stephens to 20 years in prison (”Teen jailed for ‘rampage of rape’,” October 17).
“I must emphasise that I have no acceptable evidence that he drank to excess or that he consumed anabolic steroids,” the judge.
A causal role between anabolic steroids and aggression and “roid rage” has long been discussed in popular culture although not clearly supported by the scientific literature. The defendant’s attorney tried to convince the judge that factors related to anabolic steroid use were at the root of Stephens’ uncharacteristic behavior Read more
Operation Raw Deal was the largest steroid law enforcement action in the history of the United States; it resulted in steroid busts involving 56 underground labs including Texstar Labs, Phalco Labs, Powerline Labs, Superior Labs, Medline Pharmaceuticals and Pacific Rim Labs. The steroid busts had a significant impact on underground steroid labs in the United States. But the United States exterted their heavy-handed political influence on other countries to adopt similar law enforcement actions against steroid users and steroid dealers. The nine other countries that worked in conjunction with the United States during Operation Raw Deal were Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Thailand.
Australia has been one of the leading cheerleaders of United States steroid law. They worked closely with the United States during Operation Raw Deal and executed their own large-scale steroid law enforcement action dubbed Operation Kasha Read more
The “war on steroids” is bad news for illicit steroid users in the United States. But it may be even worse for steroid users down under; the “internationalization of steroid law” has firmly taken hold in Australia. Australian Customs and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) have instigated an aggressive crackdown on the importation of anabolic steroids. Australian Customs has reported over 300 anabolic steroid seizures during the first three months of the year.
It appears that Australian Customs has targeted parcels originating in Thailand. They have intercepted massive steroid shipments from Thailand again and again.
The ubiquitous Richard Janeczko, Australian Customs national investigations manager, announced yet another seizure of Thailand steroids. The most recent steroid bust result in seizure of 15,000 steroid tablets sealed in six tin cans destined for Perth in Western Australia; the steroid tablets were identified as Dianabol Read more
When Richard Janeczko, Australian Customs national investigations manager, intercepted 80 kilograms of anabolic steroid powder in Sydney in June 2008, he immediately suspected that Australian Olympic athletes were the intended recipients of these steroids even though absolutely NO link with Australian athletes had been uncovered.
But when Australian Customs intercepted 150 bottle bottles of testosterone and Deca Durabolin disguised as “Gay Lube Oil,” Janeczko was quick to emphasize how unlikely it would be for Australia’s Olympic athletes to use steroids marketed as “Gay Lube Oil” (”Gay lube oil contained banned steroids,” July 30).
“The bulk of the people we investigate are actually not elite sports people. The people that want to enhance their image either gym people, security guards, bikies.”
It is thought that Janeczko believes Australian athletes only use steroids with names like “British Dragon” and “Animal Power” with bulldogs, horses, bulls, dragons (and of course kangaroos) on the labels. Read more
Australian Customs and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) are telling the press that an Australian-born Caucasian man living in China is the steroid kingpin and mastermind behind a massive scale distribution of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs to Olympic athletes competing in Beijing China this summer. The speculation is based on a case involving the seizure of 80kg of steroid powder (containing 40kg active ingredients) intercepted by Australian Customs at at Port Botany (Sydney).
Richard Janeczko, Australian Customs national investigations manager, makes the irresponsible and completely unsubstantiated claim that Olympic athletes were the intended recipients of these steroids even though absolutely NO link with Australian athletes has been uncovered (”Olympic doping linked to huge raid,” June 28)! Read more
The Australian Government Solicitator has ruled that a secret pilot program involving the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and Medicare was illegal. ASADA had been reviewing government Medicare prescription records and cross-referencing them with names of athletes in an effort to catch athletes using prohibited substances. Not surprisingly to anyone, the Government Solicitator determined that ASADA illegally violated athlete privacy and doctor-patient confidentiality (”Secret athlete drug probe ‘illegal’, says Government Solicitor,” May 20).
An ASADA spokesperson was unapologetic about the illegality of their methods and privacy issues involved. After all, the ASADA illegal invasion of medical privacy program was a “world first” and apparently justified because it was “aimed at catching drug cheats who might otherwise escape detection.”
The spokesperson even bragged that they were deserving of an apology for the “embarrassment” and “difficult position” placed on ASADA by revelations of the illegal program.
ASADA continues to work with Customs and other agencies including the Australian Federal Police, but has now been forced to scrap the pilot program. It was a world first and part of a suite of measures aimed at catching drug cheats who might otherwise escape detection.
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Insisting ASADA had acted in good faith, the ASADA spokeswoman said the agency had received an apology from the AGS “for any embarrassment and for the difficult position in which this has placed ASADA”.
Sometimes people within anti-doping agencies feel their moral authority justifies their unfair, and sometimes illegal, persecution of athletes in their pursuit of integrity in sports.
Kate Ellis, the new Australian Sports Minister, was considerably more reasonable in her comments to the press, acknowledging the anti-doping agencies must also play by the rules too.
Ms Ellis, who spoke at a meeting of world anti-doping investigators in Sydney recently, at which ASADA is understood to have outlined its methods, said the fight against performance-enhancing drugs needed to be tough but fair.
“If athletes are drug cheats then we will use every fair and legal avenue to ensure they get caught and appropriately sanctioned,” Ms Ellis said.
Australian Customs has reported over 300 anabolic steroid seizures during the first three months of the year. This reportedly exceeds steroid seizures from previous years. The increase in steroid shipments confiscated by customs prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing is similar to increases seen prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics (”Steroid imports not ‘linked to athletes,’” April 22).
The hike comes with the Beijing Olympic Games looming in August and follows a similar increase before the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
However, the Australian Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA),which has an unprecedented information-sharing relationship with the Australian government, reports that there is no increase in steroid shipments destined for competitive athletes.
Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) chief executive Richard Ings said the organisation works closely with customs and is notified of any involvement by Australian athletes in importing performance-enhancing drugs.
“If customs are indicating that they are seeing an increase in seizures, there is no suggestion those products were bound for athletes,” he told AAP.
Authorities attribute the increase in steroid seizures to greater demand by bodybuilders and weightlifters in an “image culture.”
The U.S. federal and state government witch hunt targeting steroids users and steroid distributors has reached levels of absurdity. Can it get worse? Yes. Australia offers insight into radical governmental efforts at cracking down on athletes who use anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (”Secret Anti-Doping Probe,” March 14).
The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) has secretly been reviewing government Medicare prescription records and cross-referencing them with names of athletes in an effort to catch athletes using prohibited substances.
But the Medicare trial is likely to be controversial, given doctor-patient confidentiality and the fact it involves drugs that only athletes are banned from using.
ASADA chairman Richard Ings yesterday confirmed the trial had taken place, but declined to say how many athletes’ records had been accessed, how the information was able to be shared, or what action would be taken for any breaches.
Mr Ings said the trial was within the bounds of ASADA and Medicare legislation and the Privacy Act and that the authority had sought the advice of the Australian Government Solicitor.
The Australian efforts at catching steroid-using athletes have almost assumed the importance of national security issues with concerted intelligence gathering procedures.
Mr Ings said ASADA had to go beyond just testing athletes and would work with any agency or organisation to crack down on drugs in sport.
“Testing alone just scratches the surface,” he said.
ASADA now collects more intelligence on drug cheats, conducts targeted operations, and tries to predict the likelihood of certain athletes using performance-enhancing drugs.
Australia is not satisfied with merely catching athletes who have committed “sports fraud” crimes. They have taken it a step further and hope to predict future anabolic steroid use in athletes! “Excuse me sir, but you have been disqualified because psychological tests indicate that there is a high probability that you may use steroids in the future.”
Using this practice to target specific athletes will lead to discriminatory abuse.
