Anabolic steroid possession for personal use is technically legal in Canada although a steroid user lacking a medical prescription could have the drug seized. Only steroid trafficking, steroid manufacturing and steroid importation are illegal under Canadian law. The penalties for steroid importation are not always particularly severe in the absence of evidence of distribution.
S. Satir, Ph.D. of Canada, a civil engineer and top amateur bodybuilder, was fined $1000 after he pleaded guilty to one charge of “failing to report imported goods” in May 2009. The Crown dropped one charge of “smuggling prohibited goods” as part of the plea agreement.
Satir was caught in possession of approximately 26,000 tablets consisting of six different types of steroids and five different bodybuilding ancillary drugs on February 4, 2009. Customs officials at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport discovered the drugs repackaged in supplement bottles and a wooden backgammon set in Satir’s luggage. Satir was returning home to Canada on a flight from the United States after visiting Turkey for two months (”Bodybuilder fined $1,000 for trying to bring steroids, other pills into country,” May 27).
Mr. Satir told investigators that he had purchased the drugs in Turkey for $2,000.
“He advised that he had obtained the pills for his own personal use, and the Crown has no evidence to the contrary,” federal prosecutor Suhanya Edwards told the court. Read more
Spanish police have arrested seven individuals for trafficking anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) in the Marina Baja region of Alicante as part of the ongoing Operation Lisboa investigation. The Guardia Civil confiscated over 4,000 dosage units of steroids and HGH from a business in Benidorm, a gym in Altea and a supplement store in Alfaz del Pi. The Spanish beach resort area is popular among European tourists from the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Norway and France (”Desmantelan dos puntos ilegales de venta de anabolizantes en Benidorm y Altea,” February 21).
Según la Guardia Civil, se han intervenido en varios registros unas cuatro mil dosis, material para su dispensación, además de dos vehículos y una motocicleta de gran cilindrada. [...]
La investigación se originó al tener constancia de que había un grupo organizado dedicado a la distribución de esteroides-anabolizantes, hormonas de crecimiento y otros fármacos prohibidos a través de un establecimiento especializado en nutrición y en suplementación deportiva.
The confiscated performance enhancing drugs have been identified as including Norma Nandrolone Decanoate, Ansomone HGH, and various oral anabolic steroids from Thailand.
The National Court of Spain sentenced IFBB pro bodybuilder Manuel Manchado Lopez and six co-conspirators to two years in prison for steroid trafficking as part of “Operation Mazas”. Manchado was one of four defendants given the option of avoiding prison by paying a fine of €5,760 euros for his “crimes against public health” (”Champion body builder sentenced for steroid trafficking,” December 31).
Operation Mazas started when postal officials discovered two parcels containing illegal anabolic steroids in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) in June 2003. The ensuing investigation implicated various bodybuilders and a Spanish supplement company in selling “illegal substances used for the development of muscle mass and strength” (”Condenan a Míster Universo 2003 a 2 años de prisión por tráfico de anabolizantes,” December 31).
Manuel Manchado was arrested for marketing and distributing anabolic steroids as an employee of the Spanish supplement company Steromax España SL. Steromax illegally manufactured various anabolic steroid products which were sold by Manchado via his Fitness Center in Leganés (Madrid), supplement store and an internet website. The Spanish Civil Guard seized over half a million doses of anabolic steroids, including three steroids not authorized for sale in Spain, from the residences and businesses involved in the steroid ring. Steromax was not licensed to manufacture and/or distribute pharmaceutical products Read more
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control and the Tulsa Police Department are trying to find out if an Oklahoma steroid trafficking network sold anabolic steroids and/or performance enhancing drugs to high school athletes (”Steroid inquiry widens to teen athletes,” April 24).
Tulsa and state undercover officers are investigating whether suspected steroid dealers are selling performance enhancement drugs to high school students.
Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control’s office in Oklahoma City, said agents have received a significant number of calls in recent months from high school coaches concerned about rapid gains in weight and strength among their players.
Chris Goodman (owner of Hi-Octane Fitness and co-owner of Supplement Shak), Keith Koppenhaver (an amateur NPC bodybuilder and personal trainer), IFBB pro bodybuilder Guy Ducasse and Coweta police officer Zachary Livingston were recently implicated in a major Oklahoma steroid distribution network. Sources have told MESO-Rx that the Tulsa Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit has interviewed over 75 people in the Oklahoma steroid investigation.
Prosecutors have been particularly motivated to search beyond simple evidence of steroid distribution to find links between steroid dealers and high school athletes or professional athletes whenever possible. If they are lucky, they think they can finally find the steroid dealer who sold anabolic steroids and growth hormone to Roger Clemens.
Masters bodybuilding competitor Mark J. Sangiuliano (aka Marc Sangiuliano) was arrested and charged with “second-degree trafficking in a controlled substance” identified as anabolic steroids. MSNBC reports that Marc was arrested by federal authorities; however, the ABC television affiliate in Louiseville, Kentucky WHAS-TV reports that deputies from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department arrested Sangiuliano at his home in St. Matthews, Kentucky. Court records show an arraignment scheduled for February 5, 2008 in the case of Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Mark J. Sangiuliano.
Sangiuliano told WHAS-TV that the steroids were for personal use only and that the trafficking charged was related to fertility medications and had nothing to do with bodybuilding; he also stated that he could not afford to obtain from a physician:
The whole thing revolves around me and my wife trying to get pregnant. It has nothing to do with athletics or steroids.
