IFBB professional bodybuilders Martin Kjellström and Irene Andersen were interrogated by police in Sweden during a recent series of steroid raids in Göteborg, Stockholm and Malmö during the week of April 20th, 2009. Police apparently rounded up twelve of the top Swedish bodybuilders, including at least two IFBB pro bodybuilders, during an exploratory investigation into steroid distribution in the region. But no charges have been filed in the case (”Kroppsbyggare fast i drograzzia,” May 6).
Swedish police have been known to arrest bodybuilders for suspicion of steroid use based on appearance alone. Police questioned the bodybuilders about their use of anabolic steroids. Most of the bodybuilders interrogated were found in possession of steroids in personal quantities for bodybuilding purposes. All indications suggest that Swedish police are primarily interested in busting major drug dealers of steroids and narcotics and not bodybuilders who use personal quantities of steroids and related performance enhancing drugs.
IFBB pro Martin Kjellström cooperated with police and permitted them to search his home where they discovered only small quantities of anabolic steroids. The steroids purportedly amounted to a 1-2 week personal supply; Kjellström’s physician in Norway corrobated the pharmaceutical regimen with Swedish police. Kjellström explained to police that most bodybuilders are hard-working professional athletes and NOT drug dealers. There was NOT a steroid bust but only involved questioning by the Swedish doping police. It is not expect to effect his contest preparations for the 2009 Mr. Olympia. Read more
Swedish Police have captured and interrogated 40 suspects during a series of pre-dawn raids in a massive steroid bust. Large quantities of anabolic steroids, performance enhancing drugs, and weapons were seized by Sweden’s Rikskriminalpolisen (RKP) in conjunction with police departments in Stockholm, Gävleborg, Jönköping, Blekinge and Halland. The RKP is Sweden’s National Criminal Investigation Department which is responsible for investigating major doping crimes.
The steroids were sold largely in bodybuilding and fitness circles around Stockholm; they were also distributed in various cities throughout Sweden as well as via the Internet. The Sweden Doping Act of 1991 criminalized the importation, distribution, possession and use of anabolic steroids.
The interrogated individuals were implicated as customers of a major steroid dealer who was arrested with his girlfriend in Gävleborg (Sweden) in August 2008. A search of the Gävleborg man’s computer uncovered a customer list that was thought to be the basis of today’s steroid raids Read more
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the muscle gains from anabolic steroid use may be permanent according to an unnamed and unpublished research study from Umeå University in Sweden (”Cheaters Do Prosper: Scientists in Sweden Make a Stunning Claim: The Benefits of Steroids May Never Go Away — Even When Athletes Quit Taking Them,” April 4).
When the researchers looked at the subjects’ muscles through a microscope, they made a surprising discovery: Rather than returning to their original proportions, the muscles of the steroid users who’d stopped taking the drug looked remarkably similar to those of the subjects who were still using. They also had larger muscle fibers and more growth-inducing “myonuclei” in their muscle cells than the nonsteroid users.
MESO-Rx has identified the research as belonging to Anders Ericsson in the Department of Integrative Medical Biology at Sweden’s Umea University. Ericsson’s doctoral thesis was entitled “Strength training and anabolic steroids: a comparative study of the trapezius, a shoulder muscle and the vastus lateralis, a thigh muscle, of strength trained athletes” and was submitted on October 6, 2006. The full text PDF is available online. Read more
