A long-anticipated federal indictment against Applied Pharmacy Services (APS) on charges of conspiracy and distribution of anabolic steroids was unsealed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile. The massive 198-count federal indictment identifies twelve individuals as part of the Applied Pharmacy Services steroid distribution network including pharmacy owners and pharmacists, and doctors and businessmen who profited from customer referrals to APS. Six co-conspirators in the APS steroid distribution network were previously indicted in separate cases (”Pharmacy owners, others are charged in steroids case,” January 22).
“Each of the pharmacy owners and pharmacists named in the indictment are charged with prescribing and selling veterinary steroids, approved for cattle and livestock only, to humans,” U.S. Attorney Deborah Rhodes said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to work with the DEA, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the Alabama Board of Pharmacy to ensure that medical professionals who abuse their position of trust are held accountable.”
The United States Attorney’s Office in Mobile showed a considerable penchant for political grandstanding against steroids in the APS indictment. U.S. Attorney Deborah Rhodes and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Donna Dobbins and Maria Murphy felt compelled to use inflammatory language in the indictment that was seemingly more reflective of personal anti-steroid bias than steroid law.
The prosecutors did not miss an opportunity to inject the label of “steroid user” to indicted individuals which served no other purpose than cheap attempts to further demonize the invididual; rather than restrict language such that it conformed to legally-defined crimes, prosecutors repeatedly identified defendants as “steroid dealers.” Read more
Bishop Dolegiewicz, who was former Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson’s first supplier of anabolic steroids, died at the age of 55 on October 28, 2008. Dolegiewicz was a three-time Olympic track and field athlete for Canada and considered one of the all-time best throwers (particularly in the shot put and discus) in sports history. He also competed in the World’s Strongest Man competition and was widely considered to be one of the strongest men in the world. His accomplishments as an athlete and as a coach are legendary and deserving of tribute. However, since this is an anabolic steroid blog, I will focus on Dolegiewicz significant role in the history of anabolic steroids in sports.
When Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for stanozolol during the 100 meter finals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the reaction triggered the largest government-sponsored investigation into performance enhancing drugs in history by Canada. The Dubin “Commission of Inquiry into the Use of Drugs and Banned Practices Intended to Increase Athletic Performance” (aka Dubin Inquiry) produced 14,000 pages of testimony from 119 witnesses at the cost of $3-4 million in 1989. The Dubin Inquiry is credited with breaking the code of omertà regarding anabolic steroid use in sports.
The Dubin Inquiry also revealed that Bishop Dolegiewicz was widely considered to be a major steroid supplier for many track and field athletes in Canada, including Ben Johnson. He was also known for his expertise and knowledge on anabolic steroids and anabolic pharmacology. Read more
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has targeted several unnamed officers from the Trenton Police Department. The State has sent “target” letters to officers suspected of using human growth hormone and/or anabolic steroids; they are being given the option of cooperating, facing a grand jury, or criminal indictment (”Trenton cops served notice that they’re targets of hormone probe,” August 12).
Several police sources, however, said that a handful of cops, some of them ranking officers, have recently received “target” letters asking for their cooperation in the case.
The investigation began with the steroid bust of Florida dentist Dr. Jeffrey Weiser who sold prescriptions for testosterone, human growth hormone (HGH), Deca Durabolin, Winstrol, Oxandrin, Nolvadex and Clomid to bodybuilders on the Internet for $50 per script per medication. Cops from the Trenton Police Department were allegedly clientele of Weiser’s “personal fitness consulting business.”
In 2005, Weiser pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court, and his sales records, seized in the investigation, led to the Trenton officers, according to published reports.
Steven Suarez, a steroid dealer who was busted in April 2008, is thought to be cooperating with authorities in the Trenton cop steroid scandal as well. Read more
Jeffrey Weiser, DDS. was the most popular dentist among bodybuilders for several years even though he never evaluated any patients. Yet he guaranteed to bring a big smile to the faces of his bodybuilding clientele.
Even though Weiser retired from the practice of dentistry in May 2001, he retained his DEA controlled substances registration enabling him to continue writing scripts for prescription medications. Weiser used his DEA license to write prescriptions for various anabolic steroids such as testosterone, nandrolone, oxandrolone and stanozolol; human growth hormone; and ancillary medications such as HCG, Clomid and Nolvadex from July 2001 through October 2004 for clients of his “personal fitness consulting business.”
Weiser advertised his services on various bodybuilding forums and found many customers who felt that they were legally obtaining anabolic steroids. After all, they received a prescription for the bodybuilding medications which they could take to their local pharmacy. There would be no legal risks with a prescription for steroids, would there?
Roberto Pulido (aka Kiko aka Anthony Williams) was an corrupt officer with the Boston Police Department who was involved in various illegal activities including steroid dealing. He regularly imported anabolic steroids such as Winstrol, Dianabol, Deca Durabolin and Testosterone from a Greek source; he ordered them by phone, deposited funds in the source’s U.S. bank account, and received large shipments via common courier at several private homes and businesses on at least five occassions according to court documents. He even advised FBI uncover agents on how to successfully import anabolic steroids from overseas.
Pulido boasted, “the key to mailing shit (steroids) here in this country is you gotta mail it in photo paper. You know the paper, that fucking carbon paper … you buy that paper, you wrap it in that and that’s it. There’s nothing that can get an x-ray through that, and dogs can’t sniff through that.”
Pulido was so corrupt and involved in so many illegal activities that federal prosecutors didn’t even bother with steroid conspiracy or steroid distribution charges. They settled on conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin; he escorted trucks bringing at least 140 kilograms of cocaine into Boston with plans to protect shipments of 500 kg on an ongoing basis. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison for this crime.
In this unbelievable police corruption scandal, Pulido and his defense attorney blamed anabolic steroids for his crimes (”Boston officer sentenced to 26 years in drug case,” May 16).
Pulido’s public defender, who said her client’s abuse of steroids contributed to his crimes.
[...]
Pulido said he was pumped full of steroids when he suggested to undercover agents in Atlantic City that he knew a good way to transport cocaine into Boston.
He said a steroid addiction made him exaggerate many of the statements he made on the surveillance tapes and called many of his comments pure fantasy. In his mind at the time, he said, he was playing a role in a Hollywood movie. He even recited lines from “Training Day,” the film about a corrupt officer.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I was acting,” he said. “It was pure puffery.”
Pro-steroid and anti-steroid bloggers have laughed at this preposterous defense.
I will write more about the “steroids made me do it” defense aka dumbbell defense shortly.
In the aftermath of the British Dragon and Redicat steroid bust in Thailand, steroid sources in the Southeast Asian country continue to face disruptions in their steroid distribution efforts (”Customs uncover ‘huge’ steroids stash,” April 1).
More than 2000 vials of a banned steroid have been found by Customs officials inside a parcel sent to Sydney from Thailand.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the steroid seizure by customs in February has resulted in ongoing steroid busts in Sydney Australia (”Steroids found in Thai parcel: customs,” April 1).
Customs officers at Australia Post’s Gateway Facility in Sydney found the 2,378 ampoules of Sustanon 250, Stanozol and Nandrolone in plastic bags after examining a parcel from Thailand said to contain glass figures…
After finding the drugs in the mail on February 19, Customs investigators executed search warrants on premises in south-western Sydney last Friday and seized evidentiary material.
Investigations into the major steroid seizure are continuing.
Customs national manager for investigations, Richard Janezcko, said the agency was “continuing to detect and investigate increased attempts to smuggle prohibited and restricted performance enhancing drugs into Australia”.
Australia’s war on steroids is one of the most aggressive in the world, perhaps even more draconian than the efforts by the United States.
A 33-year old German man living in Austria was arrested today entering Hamburg Airport in Germany as part of an investigation into the trade of illegal doping substances such as anabolic steroids. Authorities confiscated significant quantities of Winstrol Depot (stanozolol) and generic Viagra (sildenafil).
Raids on his former apartment, the office of his tax adviser, a Berlin transport company that he used and a Hamburg company led to the seizure of drugs that included 174 kilograms (384 pounds) of a bodybuilding supplement called “Winstrol Depot,” 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of kamagra, an anti-impotence drug, and other anabolic steroids.
Based on records obtained during the raids, authorities determined that the steroid distribution had been booming for the past through years in the domestic bodybuilding scene.
Another internet-based anabolic steroid source arrested in Opeartion Raw Deal in the fall of 2007 has pleaded guilty. Robert Cashmon of New Hampshire pleaded guilty to six counts including “possession of anabolic steroids with intent to distribute,” “conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids,” “receipt in interstate commerce of misbranded drugs” and “laundering of monetary instruments.” Specific steroids sold by Cashmon as cited in the indictment include oxymetholone, methandrostenolone and misbranded stanozolol (misbranded as CP Winstrol).
Cashmon is scheduled for sentencing on April 28, 2008.
