Yahoo's Josh Peter is right on top of the DEA drug bust. Josh documents the enormity of the bust (read our companion piece here):
The undercover operation led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration resulted in the seizure of massive amounts of anabolic steroids from an illegal, underground network and the ability to identify hundreds of thousands of people who received steroids and other substances used by some athletes as performance-enhancing drugs, a DEA spokesman told Yahoo! Sports on Sunday.
Most of the raids took place in the United States, and the DEA called the steroids crackdown the largest in U.S. history. DEA offices in New York and San Diego provided lead guidance during an investigation that resulted in 124 arrests and seizures at 56 labs across the country. Investigators also seized 71 weapons, 27 pill presses, 25 vehicles and three boats, but the coveted item was illegal drugs, and the DEA said it intercepted a staggering quantity.
Here is the new twist, according to the Yahoo story: the Feds may have massed another database of steroid and PED users:
Also, federal officials are creating a database of names of the people who received steroids, human growth hormone (HGH) and other drugs banned by most sports leagues and athletic associations, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.
"I have no information about any athletes yet," Payne said when asked about the names in
the database and others implicated in the case. But he acknowledged the possibility of athletes being linked to the investigation that focused largely on steroids, HGH and other drugs being manufactured by Chinese companies and flooding the U.S. market.
"Of course, performance-enhancing drugs are an issue right now," Payne told Yahoo! Sports during a telephone interview. "They're in the news, and they're in the news because there have been athletes that have been tied to them. We know that's what this story is."
Steroids, HGH and other drugs seized in the raids promote muscle growth and speed recovery from injury, and athletes have used them despite the risk of suspensions and permanent bans from sport.
Whether Major League Baseball, the NFL and other sports bodies can gain access to the database and search for athletes who received substances banned by the respective sports organizations will be up to top officials at the Justice Department and DEA, according to Payne.
As we pointed out in the previous post, the DEA focuses on the distribution network. Someone, however needs to focus on the end user. Sports fraud laws would enable drug-cheating athletes to suffer the consequences of their actions.
"Anything is possible," he said.
Typically, DEA investigations focus on drug suppliers and dealers. But now that the DEA has the ability to identify the largest numbers of people who received illegal shipments of drugs during Operation Raw Deal, Payne said, "If you are one of those people, you could get a knock at your door."
U.S. officials enlisted the help of China and eight other countries in an investigation that targeted more than 35 Chinese companies that produce raw materials used to make steroids and HGH, and in some cases finished product, sold illegally on the global underground network, Payne said.
China has emerged as the leading supplier of illicit steroids and HGH since the DEA began targeting Mexico suppliers two years ago. U.S. authorities said the operation that shut down steroids manufacturers in Mexico temporarily cut into the supply in the United States, but Chinese suppliers stepped in.
The move from Mexico to Chinese manufacturing of illegal drugs is exactly what we feared as presented to USA Today. The money and the demand for illegal anabolic drugs is so great, new suppliers will be happy to fill the void left by arrests of old suppliers. (more from the excellent Yahoo article, after the jump)
Last week, Yahoo! Sports obtained documents that showed HGH imported from China was seized in the Signature Pharmacy scandal. High-profile athletes linked to that investigation, launched by the district attorney in Albany County, N.Y., include baseball players Rick Ankiel, Gary Matthews Jr., Troy Glaus and Jay Gibbons; NFL safety Rodney Harrison; boxer Evander Holyfield; and a dozen pro wrestlers.
The Chinese link becomes complicated if the 2008 Olympics, held in Beijing. Should a country now supplying illegal black market anabolics be rewarded with the Olympic games?
The role of Chinese companies in supplying steroids to the underground market figures to be sensitive for China considering the country will play host to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in August. But the investigation could prove even more damaging to the world of sports.
Major League Baseball has scrambled to control recent news leaks of players connected to the Signature scandal. Last week, an arbitration panel upheld the results that showed American cyclist Floyd Landis used synthetic testosterone during his riveting comeback victory in the 2006 Tour de France. And for months, during his successful quest to overtake Hank Aaron as baseball's all-time home run king, Barry Bonds reignited controversy from a steroids scandal that stemmed from a 2003 raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) that ensnared Bonds and several other well-known athletes.
Again, the massiveness of this bust is hard to comprehend:
Investigators hauled in countless bags and boxes loaded with steroids that have a street value potentially exceeding $50 million, Payne said. The stockpile included 11.4 million doses of steroids, which based on the 0.5 milliliter per dose used by the DEA for calculations, amounts to about 570,000 vials that each hold 10 milliliters.
There is much more at Yahoo: read it.
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