Operation Farmacia de Juicy Phruit is the code name for the major steroid bust in Houston led by the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Department involving the arrest of 73 defendants. The “largest narcotics operation in the history of Fort Bend County” primarily involved the arrest of personal trainers, their clients, bodybuilders, a professional bodybuilder and a gym owner in the Houston area. Many of the arrests only involved steroid possession. The steroid network was characterized by Sheriff Milton Wright as a “loose knit” network of individuals involved in fitness/bodybuilding who distributed steroids through “word of mouth”. The total amount of steroids sold over a period of about six years was estimated to have been $643,924 (“Authorities round up drug suspects,” May 27).
“It’s one of these things where they’ve got their friends on speed-dial. They need a certain product, they give them a call and so forth,” Wright said. “They just know each other. A lot of times they know each other by nicknames. They are well-connected to each other in that respect.”
Fort Bend County Sheriff Wright told the Houston Chronicle that the Texas steroid investigation revolved around personal trainers and gyms (“Fort Bend holds suspects in alleged steroid ring,” May 28).
“The majority of this thing is built around body trainers at fitness centers,†said Wright. “Their livelihood is getting customers they can develop physically — legally or illegally. It doesn’t matter in their eyes, as long as they get the job done.â€
The steroid operation originated with Brock Falkenhagen, owner of Fitness Associates and Smoothie Factory in Sugar Land, when his activities came to the attention of law enforcement in late 2006 for importing and distributing Jintropin brand human growth hormone (HGH) purchased from Lei Jin of GeneScience Pharmaceuticals. Falkenhagen also allegedly manufactured and distributed anabolic steroids from some time in 2001 through September 7, 2007. Falkenhagen was well-connected in the Sugar Land / Stafford / Missouri City / Houston area fitness community and was friendly with several personal trainers and bodybuilding promoters. Some of Falkenhagen’s friends are rumored to have been arrested today. Charles Brock Falkenhagen was listed as a co-defendant on the sealed indictments of all 22 defendants indicted by the federal grand jury in April 2009; the names of Falkenhagen’s co-defendants were redacted in unsealed court documents.
Falkenbaden was not characterized as the mastermind behind the steroid operation. But authorities would not elaborate on how the Falkenbaden investigation led to the arrest and indictment of personal trainers and bodybuilders in the Houston area. Falkenbaden was arrested approximately a week before today’s arrests and released on a $75,000 unsecured bond Read more
Daniel McGlone was sentenced to two years in prison for advertising, marketing and promoting American Pharmaceutical Group (AMG) as a source for anabolic steroids and human growth hormone in bodybuilding magazines and through the internet website PrescriptionProtocol.com. Daniel McGlone aka American Pharmaceutical Group paid $18,150 to American Media Inc. (AMI) for magazine advertisements over about an 18-month period; AMI publishes the bodybuilding magazines FLEX Magazine, Muscle & Fitness and Men’s Fitness. AMG also paid for $1,800 for advertisements in the bodybuilding magazine Planet Muscle for a couple of months.
The American Pharmaceutical Group made $860,810 over a twenty-eight month period in proceeds from anabolic steroid and HGH sales to individual customers and referral bonuses from compounding pharmacies such as Signature Pharmacy. Customers responding to ads in bodybuilding magazines and on the internet were prescribed various anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Specific drugs included testosterone, testosterone cypionate, testosterone propionate, testosterone enanthate, stanozolol, nandrolone decanoate, and somatropin Read more
Dr. Richard Rydze is a vocal advocate of the use of recombinant human growth hormone (rHGH) for the treatment of tendon and ligament injuries. Dr. Rydze found HGH to be highly effective for this purpose based on the clinical results from his human growth hormone research project involving over 200 patients over the course of 5 years. Unfortunately, Dr. Rydze, as a 22-year member of the Pittsburgh Steelers medical staff and an internal medicine specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) was not in the best position to conduct such controversial HGH research in his private practice.
The societal stigma associated with performance-enhancing drugs and the legal restrictions on legitimate medical research by anti-steroid crusaders and the anti-doping movement quickly resulted in Dr. Rydze resignation from both the Pittsburgh Steelers organization and the UPMC after it was publicly disclosed that Rydze had purchased $150,000 worth of HGH and anabolic steroids from Signature Pharmacy with his credit card (“Former Steelers doctor embraced HGH,” January 15).
“I know it has caused me a lot of grief, simply because I believe in it and I know what it does,” Rydze said. “And to deny people the effect to heal better — that is the art of medicine, to make people heal. And using something off-label, which we use for many, many drugs … I don’t see how someone can single out one thing and say you can’t use it for off-label use. And you show me there is one side effect, and I’d be a believer. But I have never seen a side effect. And I just think it is just ignorance of people who don’t know. They just hear about it, and they assume it is bad.”
The use of human growth hormone was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for a limited number of conditions**; the use of HGH for tendon and ligament injuries was not one of the FDA-approved indications. Any use of HGH for this purpose was considered “off-label.” An “off-label prescription” for a drug refers to its use by medical professionals to treat additional medical conditions and/or indications that were not originally approved by the FDA.
It is legal for physicians to use all FDA-approved pharmaceutical drugs for off-label purposes EXCEPT for HGH. The off-label use of human growth hormone (HGH) to accelerate healing in the treatment of tendon and ligament injuries remains illegal. Read more
United States government investigators targeted World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon in a contentious and adversarial meeting that appeared to be nothing more than a steroid witch-hunt; investigators asked very few factual questions during the three-hour interrogation at the Rayburn building.  David J. Leviss, Senior Investigative Counsel for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, repeatedly asked McMahon for his lay opinion on the medical and pharmacological aspects of anabolic steroids.Â
After over two hours of dubious questioning failed to bear fruit, the House Government Reform Committee investigators attempted to salvage the interview with a last-ditch effort to implicate Vince McMahon as a user of anabolic steroids perhaps hoping they could trick him into perjuring himself. (Perjury has been a popular weapon used by federal investigators to pursue steroid users.)
The government investigators reconvened after a short break to ask McMahon about his own use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. In what appear to be hastily arranged questions, Leviss inaccurately referenced events in the 1993 case of USA v. Vincent K. McMahon in which McMahon was acquitted of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids to wrestlers. David J. Leviss, Senior Investigative Counsel, was promptly put in his place by Vince McMahon’s counsel Jerry S. McDevitt, Esq. Read more
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Portland Office launched a public-corruption investigation involving the role of the Canby Police Department in a steroid distribution network according to an investigative report by Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian. Federal investigators allege that Canby police officer Jason Deason openly purchased anabolic steroids and growth hormone from local steroid sources and tipped off his suppliers to any police inquiries; furthermore, Canby Police Chief Greg Kroeplin was aware of his housemate Deason’s involvement with local steroid sources and not only failed to act upon it but may have actively covered it up. Officer Deason even submitted purchases for anabolic steroids and growth hormone on official Canby Police stationary (“Canby cop bought steroids on the job, FBI says,” November 15).
Federal agents this year launched a public-corruption investigation, revealing a cozy relationship between Kroeplin and Deason in the 24-member force that allowed the officer to brazenly buy steroids while on duty and in uniform and tip off his suppliers to police inquiries, according to multiple search warrant affidavits filed in U.S. District Court.
Canby police supervisors either failed to address the problem or concealed it, federal authorities allege in the court documents. The investigation also uncovered a steroid distribution network that operated in Oregon, Washington and Arizona.
No charges have been filed in an ongoing investigation by the FBI Portland Office. The Oregonian reports that Canby officer Deason purchased anabolic steroids and human growth hormone from local steroid sources William Traverso, of Canby Landscape Supply, and Brian Jackson, the former strength and conditioning coach for the Oregon City High School girls basketball team. All three worked out at Nelson’s Nautilus gym in Oregon City.
Â
Three individuals who purchased anabolic steroids with a prescription for their own personal use were indicted on steroid possession charges. Cleveland Police Lieutenant Anthony Tuleta, former firefighter Craig Romey and former EMS paramedic Angel Otero purchased various anabolic steroids and human growth hormone with prescriptions obtained over the Internet from California-based physician Ramon Scruggs via the New Hope Med website. A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Tuleta, Romey and Otero on multiple drug (steroid) possession charges for illegally purchasing steroids for bodybuilding purposes (“Cleveland cop, firefighter and paramedic charged in steroid probe,” November 10).
Police Lt. Anthony Tuleta, 50, former firefighter Craig Romey, 38, and former EMS paramedic Angel Otero, 41, received prescriptions over the Internet between January 2003 and June 2007 from Dr. Ramon Scruggs of Santa Ana, Calif., prosecutors said. Scruggs faces 13 charges for drug trafficking.
Prosecutors have rarely pursued cases against individual steroid users who obtained steroids with a doctor’s prescription. Successful prosecution would require successfully defining and proving legally ambigous issues like what constitutes a “valid medical prescription,” “legitimate medical purpose,” and “doctor-patient relationship.” Only recently has legislation (i.e. Ryan Haight Act) been introduced to clarify such definitions. Perhaps prosecutors are now emboldened to take on such cases now that the Act has passed and will be enacted in April 2009 Read more
There is hope for anabolic steroid users that U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama will legalize the non-medical use of steroids shortly after he is inaugurated. Of course, the actual likelihood is slightly greater than “a snowball’s chance in hell,” but one can find indicators (albeit extremely tenuous) to suggest that Obama would support such a change in steroid laws.
The general public takes comfort in blaming anabolic steroids for violent and abhorrent crimes. The media is quick to find such associations given their tendency towards steroid demonization and steroid hysteria. The latest instance involves child abuse by Anthony Badalamenti in which the perpetrator has been linked to anabolic steroids, the violent beating has been referred to as an example of roid rage, and his behavior has been compared to the Chris Benoit tragedy.
The New York Daily News reports that Anthony Badalamenti obtained anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) in 2006 from Lowen’s Pharmacy which were prescribed to him by Dr. Richard Lucente (who is under investigation for writing precriptions for performance enhancing drugs) (“Long Island bodybuilder linked to Mitchell Report pharmacy,” November 4).
“I don’t know if this was ‘roid rage, but this sure reminds me of Chris Benoit,” said the source, referring to the professional wrestler who had steroids in his system when he killed his wife and son before committing suicide in 2007.
Â
Jeffrey J. Rock, better known as Gavin Kane in the bodybuilding world, was recently sentenced to 5 years probation and 15 months community and home confinement for his role in the Internet distribution of Jintropin human growth hormone in the United States. Jeffrey Rock operated as an internet HGH source using the alias Propeptides. He marketed human growth hormone to bodybuilders through Gavin Kane Enterprises and RockHard Physique and related websites, GavinKane.com and Propeptides.com.
Jeffrey Rock aka Propeptides was one of the major players involved in the distribution of Jintropin brand human growth hormone in the United States; he worked directly with GeneScience Pharmaceuticals in China to import/smuggle and distribute HGH to bodybuilders in the U.S. Rock was indicted on six charges including one count of smuggling human growth hormone into the United States, two counts of distribution of growth hormone and three counts of money laundering. Rock faced a total of 60 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. He faced 20 years in prison for the single count of smuggling HGH alone under federal sentencing guidelines.
China announced the revocation of the GeneScience Pharmaceutical license to manufacturer Jintropin brand human growth hormone. This represents a major success in efforts towards the internationalization of steroid and doping law by the United States. The U.S. federal government indicted CEO Lei Jin and GeneScience Pharmaceutical Inc. last fall as part of Operation Raw Deal (“China Cracks Down on Drug Companies,” June 19).
One of the drugmakers that China named Wednesday was GeneScience Pharmaceutical, which is based in northern China and run by an American-educated executive. Last September, a federal grand jury in Rhode Island indicted the company for illegally distributing millions of dollars in human growth hormones in the United States. The company had denied the allegation, but its American agent pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to distribute H.G.H.
Thomas T. Perls, MD and S. Jay Olshansky, PhD attack their favorite punching bag, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), and other anti-aging management organizations and health care practictioners who prescribe human growth hormone (HGH) to adult patients with adult-onset growth hormone deficiency disorder (GHD) today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Perl and Olshansky state that HGH can ONLY be prescribed for adult GHD if they meet the diagnostic criteria as confirmed by stimulation testing.
They explicitly attack the A4M recommendations that HGHÂ justifiably prescribed to patients with IFG-1 levels below 100ng/mL. Read more
BALCO’s Victor Conte provides a detailed outline of performance enhancing drugs for elite level (sprint) track athletes in a letter written to Dwain Chambers entitled “Improving UK Sport’s Anti-doping Policies and Procedures.”
Victor Conte’s letter details how elite track athletes can used performance enhancing drugs to maximize performance with precise dosing and timing for each ergogenic drug.
1. THG (Tetrahydrogestrinone)Â
THG is a previously undetectable designer steroid nicknamed “the clear.” It was primarily used in the off season and was taken two days per week, typically on Mondays and Wednesdays. Generally, these were the two most intense weight-training days of the week. The purpose was to accelerate healing and tissue repair. Thirty units (IU) of the liquid was place under the tongue during the morning time-frame. THG was used in cycles of “three weeks on and one week off.”
2. Testosterone / Epitestosterone CreamÂ
Testosterone/epitestosterone cream was also primarily used during the off season. It was rubbed into the skin on the front of the forearm two days per week, typically Tuesdays and Thursdays. The dosage was ½ gram which contained 50mg of testosterone and 2.5mg of epitestosterone (20 to 1 ratio). The purpose was to offset the suppression of endogenous testosterone caused by the use of the THG and to accelerate recovery. The testosterone/epitestosterone cream was also used in cycles of three weeks on and one week off.
3. Procrit (EPO or Erythropoietin)
EPO was used three days per week during the “corrective phase”, which is the first two weeks of a cycle. Typically, it was on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It was only used once per week during the “maintenance phase” thereafter, typically this was every Wednesday. The dosage was 4,000 IU per injection. The purpose was to increase the red blood cell count and enhance oxygen uptake and utilization. This substance provides a big advantage to sprinters because it enables them to do more track repetitions and obtain a much deeper training load during the off season. EPO becomes undetectable about 72 hours after subcutaneous injection (stomach) and only 24 hours after intravenous injection.
4. Serostim (HGH or Human Growth Hormone)
HGH was used three nights per week, typically on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Each injection would contain 4.5 units of growth hormone. Once again, this substance was used primarily during the off season to help with recovery from very strenuous weight training sessions.
Insulin was used after strenuous weight training sessions during the off season. Three units of Humalog (fast-acting insulin) were injected immediately after the workout sessions together with a powdered drink that contained 30 grams of dextrose, 30 grams of whey protein isolates and 3 grams of creatine. The purpose was to quickly replenish glycogen, resynthesize ATP and promote protein synthesis and muscle growth. Insulin acts as a “shuttle system” in the transport of glucose and branch chain amino acids. There is no test available for insulin at this time.
6. Provigil (Modafinil)
Modafinil was used as a “wakefulness promoting” agent before competitions. The purpose was to decrease fatigue and enhance mental alertness and reaction time. A 200mg tablet was consumed one hour before competition.
7. Cytomel (T3 or Liothryonine)
Liothryonine was used help accelerate the basic metabolic rate before competitions. The purpose was to reduce sluggishness and increase quickness. Two 25mg tablets were taken one hour before competition. There is no test available for liothryonine at this time.
Paul Coggins, the attorney for NFL football player Matt Lehr, announced that federal prosecutors would not indict his client on steroid distribution charges (“Attorney says ex-Cowboy Lehr won’t be indicted; investigators won’t confirm statement,” April 24).
“We have been told by the prosecutors that they do not intend to bring charges against Matt Lehr in connection with their ongoing steroid investigation,” said Paul Coggins in Dallas. “After reviewing the evidence gathered to date, the government reached the right conclusion.”
John Ratcliffe, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, which is conducting the investigation, would not confirm Mr. Coggins’ statement.
“We are actively investigating the distribution of illegal steroids and human growth hormone,” he said. “As a matter of policy, we neither identify nor comment upon persons of interest in ongoing investigations.”
A source close to the steroid investigation told MESO-Rx that the steroids and football investigation is far from over. Whether the ongoing investigation involves Matt Lehr remains to be seen.
A federal investigation in North Texas uncovered one of the largest anabolic steroid distribution networks in the country; evidence seized during the course of the investigation allegedly implicated Matt Lehr. According to the Dallas Morning News and New York Times, a grand jury was convened with subpoenas for at least a couple of NFL players (former and active) to testify against Lehr for alleged steroid distribution in the NFL.
A recent ad campaign by Cenegenics Medical Institute seen in various domestic in-flight magazines and on various websites featured the muscular torso of Dr. Jeffry Life, Chief Medical Officer of Cenegenics Las Vegas. One internet banner ad asks the question, “how does this 67-year old doctor have the body of a 30-year old?”
The answer, in part, is likely anabolic steroids (testosterone) and human growth hormone which are the cornerstone of anti-aging and age management medicine. The Cenegenics ad campaign seeks to appeal to individuals seeking to improve their physical appearance; benefits may include “improved muscle tone,” “decreased body fat,” “increased energy,” “increased sex drive / libido,” “sharper thinking,” and “improved outlook on life.” These happen to be the same motivations that lead men of all ages to the illicit use anabolic steroids and growth hormone.
When I attended a lecture by Dr. Bob Goldman, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), at the 2008 Iron Man Expo in Los Angeles, I was surprised that the presentation focused primarily on the obtainability of muscular, athletic physiques through the anti-aging lifestyle with a slideshow featuring several muscular bodybuilders and athletes.
With all the negative news about steroids in baseball and steroid pharmacy scandals, should age management (Cenegenics) and anti-aging organizations (A4M) aggressively market the muscle-building and bodybuilding effects of anabolic steroids (testosterone) and growth hormone (i.e. hormone optimization) to prospective clients? (“Mainstream docs join the anti-aging bandwagon,” April 21)
Now that sports doping scandals have made HGH, as well as testosterone and other hormones, front-page news, and some anti-aging clinics and compounding pharmacies have been raided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency for being overly liberal with hormone prescriptions, the anti-aging community has toned down its endorsement of hormones, at least in public.
“Less than 10 percent of patients involved in anti-aging are receiving growth hormone,†Klatz insists.
That seems a dubious assertion. In fact, hormones remain a key ingredient of anti-aging practice. “Most of my anti-aging patients get hormones,†typically growth hormone as well as sex hormones appropriate to each gender, Jurow says.
Given the steroid hysteria and steroid demonization resulting from the steroids in sports scandals, it seems like this would hurt business for anti-aging medicine. But this has not been the case, business is booming in anti-aging medicine.
Back in 1994, the annual Las Vegas meeting of the fledgling American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) was held in a small hotel off the Las Vegas strip. Everyone could fit into a temporary tent-like structure on the pool patio. Last December, at the 15th A4M confab, roughly 2,000 attendees, including business owners, anti-aging promoters and hundreds of doctors — among them obstetricians, ER docs, psychiatrists and internists — filled a cavernous meeting space inside the Venetian Hotel and Resort.
Today, claims Dr. Bob Goldman, A4M’s co-founder, there are about 20,000 A4M-certified doctors around the world. A4M’s tax returns confirm the boom. The income from fees charged to those seeking board certification from A4M more than doubled from $544,845 in 2005 to $1.2 million in 2006.
A rival organization, Age Management Medicine Group, is growing rapidly, too, says co-founder Rick Merner. He claims the group had more than 400 doctors at its last meeting, sponsored by the nation’s single largest “age-management†clinic, Cenegenics. The Cenegenics Foundation also certifies practitioners in age-management medicine (it shuns the term “anti-agingâ€) and claims to have experienced a 100 percent increase in the number of its physician “affiliates†to more than 800.
Could the steroid hysteria actually be stimulating business for legal prescriptions for testosterone and growth hormone?! The public condemnation of the muscle-building and performance-enhancing effects of steroids and other PEDs may be accompanied by a private celebration of the potential benefits of these hormones.
Kelly Blair, the owner of 1-on-1 Elite Personal Fitness near Houston, was identified as the source of the human growth hormone used by baseball player Andy Pettitte. We reported allegations that Andy Pettitte obtained it from his father who allegedly obtained it from Blair; there were further suggestions that a former bodybuilder awaiting trial on murder charges supplied Blair’s gym with anabolic steroids.
Has Kelly Blair been falsely accused? The so-called steroid investigation is looking more and more like a steroid witch hunt with dubious accusations made against fitness professionals, particularly in the Houston area.
For the record, Kelly Blair denies that he ever gave growth hormone to the father of Andy Pettitte; but admits that if he were asked he would have shown no hesitation in helping Tommy Pettitte obtain human growth hormone for Andy (“Trainer denies he supplied HGH to Pettitte’s father,” March 14).
“If Tommy Pettitte would have come to me back in (2004) and asked for assistance in getting growth hormone, I wouldn’t have hesitated,†Blair told the Chronicle Friday morning. “I absolutely would have done it. Why wouldn’t I? I wouldn’t have thought he was getting it for Andy, so I would have done it in a heartbeat.
“But that didn’t happen.â€
Blair sounds credible. He doesn’t deny his willingness to have helped secure HGH for Pettitte; he simply denies that he was ever asked.
