United States Attorney General Eric Holder praised the Justice Department’s use of terrorism laws to disrupt the illegal distribution of human growth hormone (hGH) during his remarks at a Justice Department leadership conference. Holder celebrated the use of the Patriot Act to eliminate a top supplier of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). The Patriot Act law “permitted” the United States to pursue an international biopharmaceutical company and seize millions of dollars “physically located” in another sovereign country.
The successful asset forfeiture codenamed Operation Honor Student resulted in the forfeiture of $2.7 million dollars by Lei Jin, PhD and his company Genescience Pharmaceutical (GeneSci). Jin and GeneSci were indicted as part of Operation Raw Deal in 2007. The defendants were charged with illegally marketing and distributing human growth hormone over the internet to bodybuilders, athletes, and pharmacies Read more
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.”
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
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.
Several weeks ago, the Toledo Blade Newspaper in Ohio erroneously identified clenbuterol and/or human growth hormone as anabolic steroids in the case of Johnathan Roumaya. Roumaya was sentenced on Monday for the misdemeanor charge of possession of dangerous drugs.
The Toledo Blade once again erred in calling the confiscated drug(s) anabolic steroids (”Oregon bar workers gets 3 days in jail over steroids,” April 15).
Authorities searched the bar in January as part of the crash investigation and found steroids and syringes in a filing cabinet.
But steroid ignorance is apparently contagious in Toledo, Ohio permeating the local media, attorneys and courts.
The NBC 24 affiliate in Toledo also misidentified clenbuterol and growth hormone as steroids, lifting a description of the drugs (practically verbatim) from a March 8th report by Laren Weber of the Toledo Blade (”Rodeo Bar owner sentenced for possession of drugs,” April 14).
Authorities searched the bar in Jan. and found steroids and syringes in a filing cabinet. The items found were listed as a blister pack containing nine tablets of Clenbuterol, a bottle with liquid Clenbuterol, several vials of the human growth hormone Jintropin, and a bag of syringes. Clenbuterol is a steroid used in meat production that is banned in the US.
Surely, the ABC 13 affiliate in Toledo would accurately identify clenbuterol and growth hormone, right? Maybe not. (”Rodeo Bar owner behind bars,” April 14)
Police found body building drugs, box syringes, and an illegal steroid at the bar during a search.
And the CBS 11 affiliate in Toledo? (”Owner of Rodeo Bar sentenced for HGH possession,” April 14)
One of the owners of the Rodeo Bar and Grill pleaded no contest last month to possessing human growth hormone.
Finally! But CBS goes on to paraphrase Roumaya’s attorney who apparently identifies growth hormone as an anabolic steroid! Dohh!
An attorney for Jon Roumaya said he was trying to lose weight, so he used the steroid.
CBS and ABC affiliates in Toledo also report that the courts apparently suffer from steroid ignorance too. “Random steroid drug testing” was a condition of Roumaya’s sentence (even though anabolic steroids were not involved in the case).
I would expect that most journalists would have a basic understanding of anabolic steroids given that the topic has been a major news story for several years now. But journalists still fail to perform their “steroid fact checking” when writing stories on the topic. The Toledo Blade Newspaper out of Ohio published a story about a steroid bust. The only problem with the story was that the man was not busted for anabolic steroids.
Authorities searched the bar in January and found steroids and syringes in a filing cabinet.
The items found were listed as a blister pack containing nine tablets of Clenbuterol, a bottle with liquid Clenbuterol, several vials of the human growth hormone Jintropin, and a bag of syringes and more human growth hormone. Clenbuterol is a steroid used in meat production that’s banned in the United States.
Clenbuterol is not a steroid and neither is human growth hormone. A substance does not automatically become an anabolic steroid simply because it is used in sports or bodybuilding for performance enhancing purposes. I’m not sure why so many people are committed to remaining blissfully ignorant about steroids. Why the resistance to steroid education?
