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Feds Bust Suspected New Jersey Steroid Factory
Thursday, September 20, 2007

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Federal agents on Thursday seized more than 40,000 doses of illegal anabolic steroids from a central New Jersey home they said was being used as a factory.

The manufacturing was done in the basement of the Sayreville home of Alfred Scarpa, an electrician who was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency, authorities said.

Scarpa, 34, admitted he was involved with buying, making and selling steroids, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. He was ordered held without bail.

A message seeking comment from Scarpa's lawyer was not immediately returned.

DEA agents also seized $56,000 and two semiautomatic handguns at the home, where the basement was filled with "tubs, bottles, vials," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kirsch said.

"Overwhelming evidence of an active, ongoing manufacturing laboratory for steroid production was blatant and in plain view," Kirsch said. He declined to say whether others might be arrested in the continuing investigation.

Agents found large hand pumps attached to large brown glass bottles filled with liquid in the basement, and a centrifuge often used to make steroids was found in the garage, according to the DEA complaint.

Chemicals were also seized, including vials of liquids labeled stanozolol, testosterone and nandrolone, the complaint said.

The raid came after the DEA obtained e-mails from Scarpa that showed he had been negotiating to buy steroid powder since at least April 2006, the complaint said.

Financial records dating to January 2005 revealed dozens of transactions in which Scarpa made wire transfers totaling at least $25,000 to businesses in Colonia and New Providence, some of which were suppliers of steroids.
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This is the real problem with the steroid issue. This junk is being mixed up in basements and garages by electricians and other people who are not chemists. This is the stuff that is getting to our kids. Not the designer stuff that Bonds, Sheffield and Giambi used. I know that their are a lot of people who want to see the proof that the players used but that is not what the perception is. If a large percentage of adults believe that these players used steroids to enhance their performance than at least that many kids believe it also. And when they decide to experiment and improve their performance like the big guys do, they can't go to Balco, they go to the neighborhood electrician who is whipping this junk up in his garage. God only knows what kind of poison they are putting in their system. Perception is reality for a teenager.


Another interesting exercise is to take the word steroid in the above article and replace it with either Crack Cocaine or methamphetamine. Sounds like just another drug dealer, guns and all.

Steroids are illegal and always have been. Even if baseball didn't see fit to ban them until 2004, they were still illegal. There were ruthless people out there making this junk in makeshift labs and selling it. Laundered cash, guns and questionable characters. As the mainstream begins to push back against the use of steroids it will drive it further underground making it even more dangerous to use the stuff from questionable sources but dealing with those sources themselves. It "wasn't illegal in baseball" is not sufficient anymore, if we change the perception we change the reality.
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quote:
Originally posted by Michael'sDad:
Very upsetting. Unfortunately it goes on with the kids. When I talked to my son about this, he's now a freshman at college, he said he knew of two baseball players at a rival HS school that were using steroids or had used and at least one football player at his old HS had used them. The problem is these kids think they are indestructible and don't belive the strokes, sterility, and cancers can happen to them, not to mention whatever else you might get from electricians mixing up drugs for human consumption.

quote:
Originally posted by deldad:
Even if baseball didn't see fit to ban them until 2004, they were still illegal.
Somebody chime in here but I thought I remembered that baseball put steroids on their black list back in the early 90's, could be wrong. MLB didn't start testing for them (or at least some of them) until recently. But, if I remember correctly - and I may not, any MLB player using after that early period announcement was using illegally but just didn't have to worry much about being caught, unless the suppliers lab was raided and records seized. MLB needs to push even harder on this issue, for the children.
"Hey Barney! You and Otis have this all wrong. All of this stuff is what we've been using! We're just fixin' to get to the County Fair and collect our 'Blue Ribbon'...isn't that right Aunt Bee?"

"Oh dear...Yes that is true Opie...now put this last case of jars into the backseat won't you please? And Barney...does Andy know what you are doing?"


Yahoo Sports
Report of September 24, 2007
An international investigation code-named Operation Raw Deal that culminated in the last four days could produce the next steroids scandal in sports – and perhaps the biggest yet.

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.

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.



OPERATION RAW DEAL

The Drug Enforcement Administration led a massive, undercover operation that targeted the illegal importation and distribution of steroids, human growth hormone and other medications. A primary source of the illicit drugs was coming from Chinese manufacturers.

Countries involved in the operation:

United States
(26 states)
China
Mexico
Canada
Belgium

Australia
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Thailand



"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.

"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.

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.



A steroid lab seized on Long Island, N.Y., as part of Operation Raw Deal.

(Photo courtesy DEA)


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.

On Monday, the sports world will learn of the latest potential bombshell. Officials are scheduled to announce details of Operation Raw Deal during news conferences in New York and San Diego.

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.

PRIMARY DRUGS SEIZED

• Anabolic steroids
• Human growth hormone
• Human chorionic gonadotropin: used to stimulate natural production of testosterone
• Insulin growth factor 1: A protein that enhances muscle growth



Payne said he had no figures for the amount of HGH and other drugs seized in an operation that involved the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center.

"These buyers are solely motivated by a desire to gain an unfair competitive advantage by using illegal performance-enhancing substances," said Terry Vermillion, Director of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, in a statement provided to Yahoo! Sports.

But Payne said rather than catching athletes who use banned drugs, the objective was to stanch the flow of illegal steroids and other drugs into the U.S. Most of the drugs seized in the investigation were cooked up "in filthy conditions with no regard to safety," according to the DEA.

The Internet has emerged as a popular source for those seeking performance-enhancing drugs without the required prescription, prompting Operation Raw Deal to employ a four-pronged strategy. The investigation targeted U.S.-based websites that distribute materials such as conversion kits necessary to turn raw steroid powders into finished product; Internet body building discussion boards that teach individuals how to use, locate, and discreetly purchase steroids; raw material manufacturers and suppliers in China and other countries; and underground steroids labs in the United States, Canada and Mexico.



DEA agents and local police make an arrest in Nassau County in Operation Raw Deal.

(Photo courtesy DEA)


Other countries involved in the coordinated international crackdown included Belgium, Australia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Thailand.

"Operation Raw Deal uncovered a clandestine web of international drug dealers who lurk on the Internet for young adults craving the artificial advantage of anabolic steroids," Karen P. Tandy, the DEA administrator, said in a statement.

In addition to steroids and HGH, the operation targeted Insulin Growth Factor and underground trafficking of ancillary and counterfeit medications. Other drugs seized included cocaine, marijuana, Ecstasy, painkillers, anti-anxiety medications and Viagra.

The DEA lauded Chinese officials for their participation in the effort, but whether China disciplines the manufacturers or discloses information remains to be seen. U.S. officials provided Chinese authorities with information packets about more than 35 Chinese companies that allegedly supplied raw materials for steroids, HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs and are involved in the illicit underground trade around the world. But U.S. officials will withhold the names of those companies in deference to China.

DEA officials said they launched the operation in large part because of health risks in taking drugs that often are mislabeled. The potential side effects include strokes, liver damage and heart disease, experts say.

Though the impact of Operation Raw Deal on sports remains uncertain, the DEA's work is not done when it comes to a crackdown on the illegal trafficking of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, Payne said.

"This is not a case with a beginning and an end," he said. "I like to look at it more as an initiative.

"This is a huge initiative."


Josh Peter is a writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Josh a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Monday, Sep 24, 2007 3:01 am, EDT
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It just keeps getting scarier. One other report stated that the number of emails that this raid has uncovered will keep law enforcement busy for months. When is the Government going to step in and protect the American people from the Chinese businesses? Lead paint, tainted dog food, steroids and tainted medicine, enough is enough.
Last edited by deldad
quote:
Originally posted by deldad:
That wasn't worth the paper it was written on. I have some paper in my bathroom that is much more valuable. They still didn't start to ban them, ie test for them, until 2004. Orlando and Michael's dad, thanks for seeing the small picture in the original post.


I apologize for answering a question in Michael's Dad's post.

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