Anabolic steroid possession for personal use is not criminalized in the Republic of Ireland but steroid trafficking is illegal. Michael Kehoe of Ireland, a successful entrepreneur in the local fitness industry, was fined €9,000 after he pleaded guilty to three counts of “supplying a medicinal substance other than as prescribed” in June 2009; Kehoe was busted in possession of almost 80,000 tablets including several different types of anabolic steroids, ephedrine and clenbuterol (aka “angel dust”) over five years earlier on March 25 2004. Kehoe discussed his past involvement with steroids and bodybuilding yesterday on Boards.ie under the handle “MickK”.
I was big into bodybuilding when I was alot younger, I have talked openly about it on boards a few times in the past. I regrettably started taking steroids when I was 17 years old and this incident took place when I was 21 years old. I am 27 now and have thankfully built a business doing what I love. I think we all know what goes on in bodybuilding and I would obviously not condone cheating in sports but in bodybuilding they are not banned. Either way it is a long time in my past now.
Defense attorney Peter Keane attributed Kehoe’s to his involvement with a “culture of steroid abuse” arising from his struggles with muscle dysmorphia. Keane maintained that the steroids and bodybuilding drugs were intended for his client’s personal use rebutting Liam Wright of the Irish Medicines Board testimony that the steroids represented a “commercial quantity” likely intended for distribution to athletes in gyms and sporting leagues. Read more
Two sheriff deputies in Tennessee have been indicted on federal charges of conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids. Thomas Derek Bowman and Matthew Simpson, deputies working the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office and Decatur County Sheriff’s Office respectively, have been accused of violation federal anabolic steroid laws by U.S. Attorney Lawrence J. Laurenzi of the Western District of Tennessee (”Henderson, Decatur Co. deputies indicted on drug charges,” May 21).
In two separate but related indictments, Bowman and Simpson are charged with conspiring with other persons to distribute anabolic steroids in and around Decatur and Henderson counties.
In addition to the conspiracy charge, Bowman is also charged with three counts of distribution of steroids, including Nandrolone Decanoate, Testosterone and Methandrostenolone.
In a search warrant executed at Bowman’s home in Lexington, about 500 dosage units of suspected steroids were seized.
Simpson is charged not only with conspiracy but also one count of illegal distribution of Testosterone.
Each count carries a penalty of up to five years in federal prison. If found guilty, Bowman could face up to 20 years in prison, and Simpson could face up to 10 years in prison, the release said.
Kristen Mealer, the most recent owner/operator of the underground steroid lab known as “Hell Fire Labs”, has pleaded guilty today to a single count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids. Federal agents had raided Kris Mealer’s Arkansas home, his gym Stone County Fitness Center, and a warehouse. Agents discovered 400 grams of raw steroid powder and 6,626 mL of liquid steroids during the steroid bust. Mealer admitted to distributing 185,029 dosage units of various anabolic steroids (”Feds say national steroid ring had Western Pa. connections,” May 12).
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Houghton said Mealer agreed to join the steroid ring known as “Hell Fire Labs” in January 2007 and that his participation continued until federal agents busted the operation in February 2008.
Agents raided Mealer’s Arkansas home and fitness center, Stone County Fitness Center. They also raided a warehouse, where Houghton said they discovered an “operational, underground anabolic steroid lab.”
Houghton said the lab was provided by a co-conspirator in Vandergrift in order to convert steroid powder into a usable liquid form. She said another ring member in Indianapolis provided Mealer with 250 e-mail addresses for customers, who ranged from Western Pennsylvania to Washington.
Hell Fire Labs was founded prior to 2006 and previously based in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. Hell Fire Labs started with the distribution of DNP and other non-controlled ancillary medications. They eventually expanded their product line to include various oral and injectable anabolic steroids. Read more
Glenn Donald England pleaded guilty to possession of steroids for the purpose of trafficking in Canadian Provincial Court on April 15, 2009. England admitted conspiring with GenXXL and Axio Labs founder Brian Wainstein to distribute significant quantities of steroid tablets and steroid injectable products in 2006. (”Edmonton cops bust steroid trafficker,” April 16).
According to agreed facts, England was busted after an eight-month undercover operation by city police and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that ended with an Oct. 10, 2006, raid at his west Edmonton apartment. [...]
There was also evidence found linking England to Irish steroid king Brian Wainstein, including itemized steroid orders on Wainstein’s website, names and addresses of customers, courier delivery receipts, phone records, money transfer receipts and computer text messages.
According to the agreed facts, between Feb. 7, 2006, and Oct. 30, 2006, England was in possession of 640,000 steroid tablets and 37.7 litres of steroid oil, valued at from $1.6 million to $2.3 million, that were sent by Wainstein.
The Edmonton Police cooperated with Irish police in a joint investigation after the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) intercepted a package from Wainstein containing anabolic steroids. Law enforcement monitored telephone conversations between England and Wainstein over the ensuing eight months. Canadian authorities arranged 17 controlled deliveries of steroid powders and steroid injectables shipped by Wainstein from Moldova, Hong Kong and China. Read more
Defense attorney Thomas Lesser of Lesser, Newman & Nasser proved that federal prosecutors do not have a monopoly on anabolic steroid misinformation and falsehoods. Lesser filed a sentencing memorandum in Massachusetts federal court requesting one year probation for his client who had previously pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges. Lesser falsely characterized the typical steroid user as a massive consumer of ridiculous amounts of anabolic steroids (”Sentencing Memorandum USA v. Shooltz,” March 19, 2009).
“A typical steroid user would use one gram of testosterone per day, which he would combine with other steroids, as well as human growth hormone. Over a ten-week period, 140 grams of steroids would be used, 70 grams of testosterone and a similar quantity of other steroids. Body builders would use more.”
In other words, Lesser expected the court to believe that the typical steroid cycle involved the equivalent of (1) 7,000mg testosterone esters per week; (2) 3,500mg Deca Durabolin per week; (3) 500mg Dianabol per day; and (4) human growth hormone (HGH). Lesser claimed that bodybuilders used even greater quantities of steroids. Read more
Kenneth Hebert and his common-law wife Leticia Zamora, owners of TexStar Labs and Phalco Labs, faced United States District Judge David Hittner for sentencing on January 28, 2009. Hebert was senteced to four years imprisonment (or double the term of imprisonment advocated by prosecutors) whereas Zamora withdrew her guilty plea after Judge Hittner denied her probation deal with the government (”Pearland man gets prison for at-home steroid factory,” January 28).
A Pearland man who ran a major anabolic steroid factory in his house was sentenced to four years in federal prison on Wednesday, but his wife withdrew her guilty plea and opted to go to trial.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Kenneth Hebert to about twice what prosecutor Peter Mason had suggested for distributing the performance-enhancing drug, made of ingredients from China.
Hebert and Zamora both pleaded guilty to their respective roles in the illegal operation of a large-scale underground anabolic steroid laboratory out of their Houston-area home. The couple manufactured raw steroid powder into oral and injectable steroid products that were distributed under the TexStar Labs and Phalco Labs label. The steroid case represented one of the largest UGL steroid busts resulting from Operation Raw Deal.
The couple decided to spend their available funds to hire an attorney from the Montalvo Law Firm to represent Leticia Zamora and provide her with the best opportunity to avoid prison time so that she could raise the couple’s two young children, ages five and seven; Kenneth Hebert was represented by a federal public defender.
Ashley Vincent Livingston, better known as Redicat in the world of black market androgens, was extradited to the United States for prosecution last Tuesday after spending eight months in a Thailand jail. Redicat was taken into custody by Thai police last March 2008, along with British Dragon co-founder Edwin Richard Crawley, in Pattaya (Thailand) as part of an international sting operation involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). During his detention in Thai jail, he allegedly cooperated fully with Thai police in response to torture providing law enforcement with extensive information about his customers and business associates (”Spilling the beans on the Big Thai Bust,” December 14).
- Access to 10 years of complete order records.
- A list of bribes and gifts given to various board moderators [which included free product, Rolex watches and cash].
- Details of payments to various bodybuilding forums for banner ads and other forms of online advertising.
- Statements detailing purchases of stock made from well known suppliers and manufacturers.
Redicat was officially arrested on December 9, 2008 by U.S. Marshall Special Agent Jason Sherrell upon arriving at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on a flight from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport. His extradition was delayed by the Thailand airport closures at the end of November.
Ashley Livingston was transferred to a facility in Seattle, Washington where awaits trial facing multiple steroid distribution, steroid conspiracy and money laundering charges along with his co-conspirator Edwin Crawley in the United States District Court in the Western District of Washington as part of massive Operation Raw Deal investigation. Read more
Edwin Porter was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison and three years probation for conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids through the underground lab (UGL) Medline Pharmaceuticals. Porter pleaded guilty to conspiring with Tyler Lunn and Matthew Peltz to import more than one kilogram of raw steroid powder from China and manufacture finished oral and injectable steroid products under the Medline Pharmaceuticals label and distribute the steroids over the internet (”Arizona Man Sentenced to 22 Months in Prison for Manufacture & Internet Distribution of Steroids,” December 9).
According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, PORTER conspired with two other Arizona residents, Tyler Lunn and Matthew Peltz, to purchase more than one kilogram of raw steroid powder from China, manufacture anabolic steroids at PORTER’s home or Lunn’s apartment in Phoenix, and distribute them to customers around the country through a MySpace.com profile “anabolic-ss” and an Internet web site they created, www.anabolic-superstore.com. In August 2007, PORTER also instructed another individual to delete emails related to the distribution of anabolic steroids.
Kevin O’Connor, the former United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut originally in charge of the Medline Pharmaceuticals case, made headlines for his public proclamations that he would identify and contact individual customers purchasing steroids from Medline Pharmaceuticals, Superior Labs and other cases prosecuted under Operation Phony Pharm (”Customers Become Focus Of Steroid Probe,” September 27, 2007). Read more
The INTERPOL operation codenamed Pangea targeted internet pharmacies in ten countries that were selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Operation Pangea involved regulatory agencies associated with INTERPOL from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.
The internet pharmacies that were raided as result of the operation were primarily sellers of prescription drugs for conditions such as diabetes, obesity and hair loss but also involved internet pharmacies selling ancillary bodybuilding drugs (”Interpol Media Release: Illegal online medicine suppliers targeted in first international Internet day of action,” November 13).
The first international Internet day of action co-ordinated by the Permanent Forum on International Pharmaceutical Crime, INTERPOL and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT), targeting the illegal online sale of medicines to the public has resulted in a series of arrests and the seizure of potentially harmful medicines in operations carried out around the world.
Codenamed Pangea, the operation focused on those individuals behind Internet sites which illegally sell and supply unlicensed or prescription-only medicines claiming to treat a range of ailments.
While steroids and steroid pharmacies were not specifically targeted, Operation Pangea has significant ramifications for international steroid distribution. The most significant consequence results from a new definition of counterfeit drugs proposed by a World Health Organization’s (WHO) funded body allegedly supported by pharmaceutical multi-national corporations (MNCs).
The passage of a new anti-doping law will criminalize the manufacture, importation, exportation, storage and distribution of anabolic steroids in the Czech Republic. Offenders who violate the anti-doping laws face one to three years imprisonment. The actual consumption of anabolic steroids will not become illegal, but the possession of steroids for non-medical use could lead to criminal investigation.
The purchase of anabolic steroids have long required a medical prescription within the Czech Republic. However, prior to the current steroid legislation, Czech drug laws did not regulate the import, export or distribution in the Czech Republic. These loopholes permitted an underground steroid marketplace worth hundreds of millions of Czech crowns to thrive virtually unimpeded. Czech Customs could only intervene and seize anabolic steroids imported from other countries if the sender failed to declare the merchandise as “anabolic steroids.” As a result Czech bodybuilders and athletes could previously import and use steroids without any legal consequences.
Czech Police are preparing to crack down hard on steroid use as soon as the legislation criminalizing the non-medical use of steroids takes effect Read more
Rick Collins, leading steroid legal expert from Collins, McDonald & Gann, has released an analysis of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 that doubles maximum steroid trafficking sentences. President Bush signed the legislation on October 15, 2008 to “put an end to the illegal sale of highly addictive prescription drugs on the Internet” to “ensure a safer future for our children.”
The legislation amends the Controlled Substances Act to address issues related to internet pharmacies, internet pharmacy prescriptions and the dispensing of controlled substances via the Internet. Even though, the legislation’s namesake was a teenager who overdosed on Vicodin (and not anabolic steroids), the Act represents a continuation in the “war on steroid trafficking.”
Rick Collins specifically looks at the far-reaching consequences for anabolic steroid trafficking cases (”Maximum Steroid Trafficking Sentences to Double,” October 28). Read more
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Drug Section arrested at least eight individuals suspected of involvement in anabolic steroid trafficking during steroids bust as a result of Operation Jellybean in January 2007. The steroid bust disrupted hundreds of thousands of dollars in anabolic steroids sales throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and even Ontario.
Defendant Mark Anthony Haig pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to traffic anabolic steroids and prescription drugs. At least two of his co-conspirators are standing trial for steroid-related crimes in the next few months Read more
The Rodney Philon case is one illustration of the disparity in federal sentencing for anabolic steroid related crimes. Pasco County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Rodney Philon decided to share 10 tablets of Dianabol (methandrostenolone) with a fellow weightlifter at a Tampa Bay area gym; unfortunately the weighlifter was a DEA confidential informant. A SWAT team was sent to arrest Rodney Philon at his home, federal prosecutors indicted Philon of steroid distribution charges, and Rodney Philon was ultimately sentenced to 2 years probation with a requirement of 6 months home detention. All for 10 tablets of Dianabol.
A judge dismissed the criminal indictments against the principals in the Signature Pharmacy steroid distribution case citing the incompetence of Albany County District Attorney David Soares. Soares is the lead prosecutor for a small county in New York who had taken it upon himself to spend possibly millions of dollars of Albany residents taxpayer money to carry on a nationwide steroid witch hunt dubbed “Operation Which Doctor“. Critics of the steroid witch hunt, opponents of anti-steroid legislation and voices in Albany law enforcement have long been critical of David Soare’s incompetence.
The ruling means that prosecutor David Soares can no longer seek charges against Stan and Naomi Loomis, the Signature Pharmacy owners, pharmacist Michael Loomis or Signature Pharmacy employees Kirk Calvert and Anthony Palladino.
The man that law enforcement officials identified as running a “steroid factory” in his basement has pleaded guilty to to possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids and unlawful possession of firearms by a convicted felon. He sourced steroids over the Internet using email accounts in the names of gearhustle@cyber-rights.net and gearhustle@safe-mail.net (”Sayreville man admits running steroids lab in his basement,” September 9).
Alfred Scarpa admitted possessing and planning to distribute 40,000 doses of anabolic steroids. He also admitted illegally possessing two .40-caliber handguns in violation of a law prohibiting convicted felons from having guns.
Alfred Scarpa was arrested in a steroid bust during the height of Operation Raw Deal raids by federal agents. DEA agents searched the New Jersey home of electrician Alfred Scarpa on September 20, 2007 after obtaining a search warrant. Agents discovered a fully operational underground steroid lab in “plain view” inside his house, locked in the basement; large quantities of steroid tablets were also discovered in “plain view” hidden inside a cabinet. Read more
