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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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1 5 - 1 2 - 2 0 0 5 U.S. charges Mexican drug makers
By MARK SHERMAN WASHINGTON -- A U.S. grand jury has indicted eight Mexican drug makers on charges they sold steroids to Americans via the Internet in what the Drug Enforcement Administration said Thursday was its largest operation against suppliers of the banned substances. Indictments in U.S. District Court in San Diego include charges against the eight companies and 11 executives after a 21-month investigation, the
Alberto Saltiel-Cohen, described by the DEA as a Mexican citizen who owns three of the companies, was arrested in San Diego on Wednesday, the agency said. Two people suspected of trafficking in steroids were arrested in San Diego and two others were picked up in Laredo, Texas, the DEA said. Federal agents also have identified more than 2,000 people in the United States who bought steroids from the companies over the Internet. Importing anabolic steroids can be a felony. "Drug traffickers prey on the belief that steroids enhance ability, but steroids only rob that ability, as we have seen so often from the affected lives of too many youth and professional athletes," DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy said. The DEA said 82 percent of the steroids it tests in its laboratories come from Mexico. The indicted companies account for more than half the Mexican supply, it said. According to the DEA, the steroid manufacturers tried to mask their intent by marketing their products for use in animals. The companies set up Web sites and facilitated ordering via e-mail, the DEA said. Saltiel-Cohen's companies, Quality Vet, Denkall and Animal Power, are significant U.S. suppliers of Nandrolone, the DEA said. Quality Vet's English-language Web site indicates its products are for veterinary use only. The other companies and their products are: - Laboratorios Tornel, Testosterone Decanoate. - Laboratorios Brovel, Nandrolone Decanoate. - Pet's Pharma, Testosterone Enanthate. - Syd Group, Stanozolol. - Loffler, Methandrostenolone. DEA makes largest-ever steroid-related arrests
By Kelly Whiteside and Dick Patrick The Drug Enforcement Administration announced Thursday that it made its largest steroid bust in history, arresting the owner of three of the world's largest steroid manufacturing companies and four traffickers. The companies are located in Mexico. The owner, Albert Saltiel-Cohen, was arrested in San Diego. The DEA also indicted the owners of five other Mexican companies and is waiting for Mexican authorities to extradite them. The traffickers are located in Laredo, Texas, and San Diego. The arrests follow a 21-month investigation in which the DEA discovered: • 82% of all DEA-seized and analyzed steroids in U.S. are manufactured in Mexico. • U.S. steroid sales for these companies are $56 million per year. The DEA identified more than 2,000 U.S. customers who have bought steroids over the internet from these businesses, including individual users, some of them teenagers, as well as street-level dealers and organized trafficking groups in dozens of cities across the country. Steroid enforcement experts contend that the key to curbing steroid abuse is targeting the source as well as beefing up weak trafficking penalties. "This is a huge organization and we know a half million kids have admitted to using steroids in the past year, so I think it's a logical inference that a lot of this stuff is getting down to the high school-age athlete who is buying from the dealer in the gym," said DEA special agent Doug Coleman. "Some of those 2,000 (identified buyers) are young kids, anyone with access to a computer has access to the websites (of the eight companies)." "Because this is the biggest one we've ever done — we went after the manufacturers as well as the distributors, all the way down to the retail buyers — we're hoping it's going to have a significant impact on the market," said Coleman. "What it shows to everybody out there is that we're going after everyone, it doesn't matter where they're at. It covers the entire steroid trafficking organization, from the manufacturers all the way down to the guy buying on the internet site and selling in the corner gym to the high school kids in there lifting weights." The DEA has begun locating the 2,000 plus U.S.-based customers, a task complicated by the fact that buyers use fake names and have packages sent to addresses other than their own. "We have agents all over the country trying to track down who all these people are," Coleman said. The DEA will attempt to track these buyers down through shipping records and email addresses. "If they've received packages through the mail we can absolutely charge them with a violation of federal law," Coleman said. Don Catlin, head of the Olympic testing lab at UCLA, which discovered the test for the designer steroid THG in 2003, hailed the DEA's investigation. "These are really exciting, heady times," said Catlin. "The government juggernaut keeps rolling on and on, knocking off labs. It started with BALCO and then people and (indicted chemist) Patrick Arnold, government hearings, websites and now the whole system coming out of Mexico. What could be better?" The arrests come at the end of a year in which professional athletes and the of commissioners of the pro leagues have been assailed at hearings on Capitol Hill about inadequate testing for performance-enhancing drugs in sports. One of the goals of the House committee on Government Reform was to underscore the danger of these drugs to teens. Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., was unavailable for comment Thursday. "The reason Davis investigated steroid use in sports, and investigated the ease with which they can purchased online, and introduced legislation aimed at better regulating Internet pharmacies, was simple: keep more young people from doing themselves harm," said Davis spokesman Dave Marin. "If today's arrest keeps steroids out of locker rooms and American households, then it's great news indeed." Don Hooton also testified before Congress. He believes steroid use led to the suicide death of his teenage son, Taylor. "This is big news," said Hooton. "I'm extremely pleased for a couple of reasons. First, we're taking the bad guys off the street. This will make a significant dent in the supply of this stuff that is hitting the streets of North America. The most important thing, beyond cutting off the supply for a period of time, is sending a message to the kids and gearheads: this stuff is illegal. It's a felony to possess without a prescription let alone distribute the stuff." Gary Wadler, a physician, author and drug expert who has testified numerous time at Congressional hearings, wants to see the penalties toughened. "The real issue to me is what are the consequences of this (DEA bust)" said Wadler. "This gets back to the sentencing guidelines for anabolic steroid violations. I've weighed in that sentences have to be enhanced substantially so there's a consequence. You find these cases, prosecute these cases and win these cases, but the consequences at the end of the day are minimal compared to cocaine, heroin and other street drugs." A guilty party could receive no more than five years of jail time for a first steroid-trafficking offense. The penalty for a second offense is a maximum of 10 years. Victor Conte, who plea bargained on charges of steroid distribution and money laundering, has begun serving a four-month prison sentence to be followed by four months of house arrest. 1 6 - 1 2 - 2 0 0 5 DEA Leads Largest Steroid Bust in History
December 15, 2005 DEC 15--WASHINGTON, DC – DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy today announced the arrest of Albert Saltiel-Cohen, owner of three of the world’s largest anabolic steroid manufacturers, as part of the largest steroid enforcement operation in U.S. history. Operation Gear Grinder is a 21-month Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation that targeted eight major steroid manufacturing companies, their owners, and their trafficking associates. By reviewing the sources of all seized and analyzed steroids submitted to the DEA’s forensic laboratories, DEA intelligence analysts and diversion investigators found that 82 percent of the steroids seized and analyzed are of Mexican origin. A large majority of those 82 percent seized and analyzed steroids originate from the eight companies identified in Operation Gear Grinder. These businesses conducted their sales via the Internet, and DEA estimates their combined total U.S. steroid sales are $56 million per year. “Steroid traffickers market their product by luring young people with promises of enhanced performance and appearance,” DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy said, “but what they don’t say is the illicit use of these harmful drugs can destroy the very bodies that they are supposed to improve. Drug traffickers prey on the belief that steroids enhance ability, but steroids only rob that ability, as we have seen so often from the affected lives of too many youth and professional athletes.” Operation Gear Grinder is part of the Virtual Enforcement Initiative, a coordinated DEA effort to target illegal Internet drug trafficking, which was launched in April with Operation Cyber Chase and continued in September with Operation CYBERx. DEA’s cyber initiative acknowledges drug traffickers are embracing the use of 21 st century technology to further spread their virus into U.S. communities. The steroid manufacturers involved in this investigation tried to mask the true consumers of these products by marketing them as being developed and sold for use in animals. The veterinary manufacturers (“laboratorios”) took notice of the demand for anabolic steroids and created a marketing strategy tailored to the needs of the U.S. consumer – to include high-quality products and internet websites. Communications via the Internet and parcel distributions were the core of these companies’ operations. The websites showcase the products and offer an email address to exchange prices and tracking numbers, and give ordering and payment instructions. These eight companies used U.S.-based email addresses and listed each manufacturer utilizing a business website to place their products in the hands of American consumers. Some manufacturers provided direct referrals to distributors through the Contact Us section of the websites. The steroids were smuggled into the United States, and shipped to customers. In addition, steroids from the eight companies were also shipped to U.S. traffickers, who re-sold the products to their customers. Financial transactions were primarily done via Western Union wire transfers, as well as bank transfers and credit card payments. These groups also supplied numerous pharmacies along the U.S./Mexico border, where U.S. customers could purchase steroids and smuggle them back across the border into the United States. In addition to the Saltiel-Cohen arrest and indictments, DEA today arrested 4 steroid trafficking suspects in San Diego and Laredo, TX. As part of Operation Gear Grinder, DEA also identified over 2,000 U.S. customers that have received steroids from the businesses indicted today. These customers consist of individual users, street-level dealers, and organized trafficking groups in dozens of cities across the country. The Southern District of California has issued indictments charging the companies and individual defendants with the following:Title 21, U.S.C., Secs. 952, 960 and 963 - Conspiracy to Import Anabolic Steroids; Title 21, U.S.C., Secs. 846 and 841(a)(1) - Conspiracy to Distribute Anabolic Steroids; Title 18, U.S.C., Sec. 2; Title 18, U.S.C., Secs. 1956(h) and 1956(a)(1)(A)(I) - Conspiracy to Launder Money; Title 21, U.S.C.,Sec. 853(a), Title 18, U.S.C.,Sec. 982 and Title 21, U.S.C.,Sec. 853(p) - Criminal Forfeiture. Manufacturing Targets
1. Companies: Quality Vet, Denkall, and Animal Power
2. Company: Laboratorios Tornel
3. Company: Laboratorios Brovel
4. Company: Pet’s Pharma
5. Company: Syd Group
6. Company: Loeffler Operation Gear Grinder was coordinated by the DEA Special Operations Division. DEA offices in San Diego, Mexico City, Tijuana, New York, Houston, San Antonio, and Laredo, Texas participated in the investigation. This investigation was a collaborative effort involving DEA, numerous U.S state and local law enforcement agencies, and the Mexican Federal Agency of Investigation (AFI). 1 6 - 1 2 - 2 0 0 5 Steroid suppliers busted in 'huge' hit
Investigation largest ever in U.S. history
By Onell R. Soto Federal authorities announced yesterday that they have broken up a group of Mexican companies that supplies most of the illegal steroids used by hundreds of thousands of athletes, bodybuilders and others in the United States. The steroid investigation resulted in the indictment of 23 people and eight Mexican companies, and was the largest in U.S. history, said John S. Fernandes, the special agent in charge of the San Diego DEA office. Run by undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents, Operation Gear Grinder was aimed at disrupting the flow of anabolic steroids from the Mexican labs to American gyms, high schools and locker rooms. (Gear is slang for steroids.) "It's huge," said Dr. Don Catlin, who heads an anti-doping lab at UCLA and who works with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. "It's clearly a real hit." The head of the largest manufacturer of the drugs appeared in a San Diego federal courtroom yesterday, charged with conspiring to import and distribute steroids and to launder money. A Mexican veterinarian, Dr. Alberto Saltiel Cohen was among those indicted, which took place in secret in September at the culmination of the nearly two-year investigation.
His three Mexico City companies – Quality Vet, Denkall and Animal Power – produce more than 75 percent of the steroids seized in the United States, prosecutors said. The other companies indicted were Laboratorios Tornel, Laboratorios Brovel, Pet's Pharma, Syd Group and Loeffler. Mexican companies account for 82 percent of the illicit U.S. steroid supply, authorities said. The manufacturers and distributors primarily use Web sites and e-mail to reach customers. Saltiel and three distributors were arrested Wednesday in San Diego. A fourth distributor was arrested in Texas. U.S. officials said they are working with Mexican officials to secure the extradition of the other company executives and distributors.
The arrests did not shut down the companies, many of which still
have functioning Web sites. Prosecutors said they hope Mexican
authorities will go after the drug makers.
As part of the investigation, federal agents tracked or seized more
than 360,000 doses of steroids.
Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation agents tracked
millions of dollars in payments, some of them in cash taken across
the border, said Kenneth Hines, who oversees local IRS
investigators. The DEA says the eight companies had $56 million a
year in steroid sales to the United States.
Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of at least $15 million that
they say can prove are proceeds from the companies' trafficking.
Steroids, typically a synthetic form of testosterone and other
hormones, are used by bodybuilders to speed muscle growth, by
athletes to develop strength and, increasingly, by high school girls
to increase muscle tone.
In the United States, steroids have been illegal without a
prescription since 1991. Side effects include excess body hair,
acne, depression, inexplicable anger, deepening of the voice,
smaller breasts in women and smaller testicles in men.
Don Hooton's son Taylor, a high-school pitcher, committed suicide
less than six months after first using steroids.
Hooton and his wife of Plano, Texas, tried but failed to discover
what was behind their son's mood swings, body changes, and outbursts
in which he twice put his fist through walls.
"We missed it," he said. "Our family doctor missed it."
Eventually, Taylor told a psychologist about using steroids and quit
soon after.
But the deepest depression can come after steroid use stops, and
that's when Taylor killed himself two years ago, Hooton said.
Hooten, a marketing manager for a computer company, has started a
foundation in his son's memory and become an expert on steroid
abuse.
"This is important," he said of yesterday's announcement. "This is a
big day."
Prosecutors said the Mexican companies market the vials and pills
containing steroids mainly through the Internet and in pharmacies in
such border and tourist cities as Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo and Cancun.
Saltiel's companies billed more than $11 million in orders to a
single Tijuana distributor, prosecutors said.
On the Web sites, some of which are registered in Mexico but run out
of servers in the United States, the companies say the drugs are for
animals, and the packaging has pictures of cats and dogs.
But the potency and formulas of the drugs wouldn't work in
veterinary medicine, said prosecutor Laura Duffy. "It would take a
600-pound cat or dog to effectively use these products," she said.
The distributors' Web sites make no such pretense that the drugs are
for animals, using names such as Steroids Club and Roids Shop.
Agents now have the names of more than 2,000 customers – individuals
and distributors – and will work with authorities in every state to
decide whom to prosecute.
Bodybuilding Internet bulletin boards were buzzing yesterday.
One poster who goes by "6ft8monster" and boasts a 415-pound bench
press wrote on bodybuilding.com shortly after news of the steroid
announcement broke: "Damn. That's crazy. I guess it was a matter of
time. I wonder how that will affect the (bodybuilding) community."
The next poster replied: "You can bet it will have a huge impact."
Authorities wouldn't say whether any of those customers included
professional or college-level athletes.
The types of drugs sold by the Mexican companies show up in tests
given to most professional and Olympic athletes.
"This is not a sport issue," said Travis Tygart, general counsel for
the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. "This is an issue for our country, for
our youth."
He said the investigation is part of a larger crackdown on steroids
– from the BALCO investigation in the San Francisco Bay Area that
shut down a sophisticated lab catering to baseball, football and
track-and-field athletes, to the mention of steroids in the
president's State of the Union address in 2004 to increased
penalties for such use in Major League Baseball.
"You have to get at the supply of these drugs in order to root out
the problem," Tygart said. "It also sends a clear signal that the
federal government takes these things seriously."
The border between San Diego and Tijuana, where more than 1,000
pharmacies peddle steroids, has long been known as one of the
primary entry points for the drugs.
In 1987, customs investigators broke a multimillion-dollar steroid
ring here, confiscating $600,000 worth of the drugs and seeking the
arrest of 34 people, including prominent athletes. At the time,
authorities said the ring was responsible for 70 percent of the
black market nationwide.
Hooton, who said his son bought steroids from a dealer supplied by a
Mexican pharmacy, said authorities can't rest now.
"Continued vigilance is absolutely necessary," he said, noting that
steroids also are being produced in Eastern Europe. "Somebody's
going to step in and fill the void."
1 7 - 1 2 - 2 0 0 5 Steroid bust gratifies victim's dad
Son's death tied to vial from Mexico; Houston among cites where users are tracked
Dec. 17, 2005
It was gratifying, Don Hooton of Plano said Friday, to watch as the Mexico
City veterinarian accused of being the world's largest maker of illegal
anabolic steroids was brought in chains into a federal courtroom in San
Diego.
The death of Hooton's 17-year-old son, high school baseball pitcher Taylor
Hooton, in 2003 was linked to a vial of steroids found in his room in the
Dallas suburb. DEA agents later traced the vial to one of three Mexican
manufacturers owned by the animal doctor, Alberto Saltiel-Cohen, according
to Hooton.
"There is some level of big satisfaction," Hooton said, about finally
seeing an arrest in connection with his son's suicide, which he said was
induced by steroid use.
DEA agents invited Hooton, 55, a relative of former Houston Astros
pitching coach Burt Hooton, to San Diego for the news conference
announcing what agents called the largest steroid bust in history.
A 21-month investigation targeted steroid traffickers in the United States
and eight major Mexican suppliers, who are accused of selling the drugs on
the Internet under the cover of makers of veterinary medicines.
The DEA said indictments and arrests have choked most of the flow of
illegal steroids across the Mexico-U.S. border by mail and private air and
road shipments.
From teenagers trying to bulk up to professional athletes trying to
enhance their performance, many people using illegal steroids across the
United States have encountered illness and scandal.
"As important that it is that they have taken this stuff off the street,
another message I hope gets driven home is that to possess a steroid
without a prescription is a felony," said Hooton, who has testified to
Congress and established a foundation in his son's name to fight steroid
abuse.
DEA agents continued Friday to track down more than two dozen Houston
clients of the manufacturers shut down in a series of arrests this week,
DEA spokesman Misha Piastor said.
No arrests have been made in Houston, Piastor said from the DEA field
office in San Diego, but some may follow.
Agents in Houston carried no arrest warrants, Piastor said, and instead
warned steroid purchasers about the perils of steroid use. They also
sought information on traffickers.
Piastor said an unspecified number of arrests were made in other states as
agents interviewed hundreds of the best customers among more than 2,000
U.S. residents who bought steroids from the indicted businesses.
"We were pretty much able to document sales in every state of the
country," he said.
Saltiel Cohen is accused of owning three of the six targeted steroid
manufacturers: Quality Vet, Denkall and Animal Power. Merle Schneidewind,
a San Diego lawyer identified as Saltiel Cohen's attorney, did not return
phone calls Friday.
The targeted suppliers accounted for $56 million in steroid sales per
year, more than half of all steroids moved from Mexico into the United
States, officials said.
Many of the Web sites implicated in the crackdown vanished Friday. Yet
Internet sites for four companies were still available Friday, touting
powerful performance enhancers as supplements for horses, dogs, chickens
and other animals.
Authorities have not tried to close the Web sites because the site's
creators could easily find another online host to advertise their
products, Piastro said.
A site for an alleged supplier in Mexico City, Pets Pharma, became
unavailable Friday afternoon, replaced by a white screen with the words,
"En Construccion" (Spanish for "Under Construction"). The site gave no
further explanation.
The site for Loeffler, S.A., an accused Mexico City provider, bills its
products as useful for animals and children.
Federal prosecutor Tim Coughlin said U.S. officials will work with the
Mexican government to find and extradite suspects who remain at large.
Throughout the investigation, he said, U.S. leaders provided updates to
Mexican authorities, who could not be reached for comment Friday.
Thursday's DEA announcement also sent a shock through online steroid chat
rooms, where members bemoaned what many considered an unfair crackdown. At
a forum for purported steroid users, some members suggested hoarding large
quantities of the substances before the supply becomes scarce or buying
instead from European suppliers.
"This is definitely not good," a member wrote. "They went straight to the
manufacturer. 'Nip it at the bud,' so to speak. I have a bad feeling this
is just the beginning."
1 9 - 1 2 - 2 0 0 5 DEA steroid crackdown hits home
BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
Shortly after Don Hooton appeared on "60 Minutes" last
year to talk about his son Taylor, who killed himself
after suffering from depression linked to steroid use,
the Plano, Tex., executive received a phone call from a
Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
The agent said he was saddened and outraged by the CBS
report and vowed to do something about the drugs Hooton
believed caused the high school baseball star's death.
"He told me people care and they're doing something
about it," Hooton says. "And damn if he wasn't true to
his word."
Last week, 20 months after that phone call, the agent
invited Hooton to a DEA press conference to announce
what federal authorities are calling the most
significant illegal steroid bust in history. On
Thursday, a federal grand jury in San Diego indicted 23
people and eight Mexican companies the DEA says sell $56
million worth of steroids to U.S. consumers annually.
DEA spokesman Misha Piastro says Operation Gear Grinder,
the 21-month investigation that led to the indictments,
is important because it knocks some of the nation's
biggest sources of illegal steroids out of business.
Seventy steroid dealers were convicted during Operation
Equine, an investigation conducted by the FBI in the
early 1990s. As the Daily News reported earlier this
year, the names of baseball players, including Mark
McGwire, Jose Canseco and others surfaced during that
investigation, although the probe did not center on
professional athletes.
Piastro says Operation Gear Grinder hasn't resulted in
as many indictments or arrests, but it's important
because the eight companies targeted are the source for
most of the steroids seized in recent years by the DEA.
"That is taking it right to the source," Piastro says.
The eight companies used the Internet to reach consumers
in the United States, and investigators say they have
identified more than 2,000 customers in this country.
The DEA doesn't have background information about the
customers yet, Piastro says, but the agency expects a
large percentage will turn out to be athletes or
bodybuilders.
The DEA will try to question the 2,000 customers; New
York DEA spokeswoman Erin Mulvey says a Brooklyn man,
Arlen Muchnik, has already been charged with possession
and conspiracy to distribute steroids. Authorities say
Muchnik bought large quantities from the Mexican
companies to distribute in the New York area.
Operation Gear Grinder is also notable because
large-scale steroid probes are rare. Steroid experts say
that's because under federal sentencing guidelines,
authorities have to make huge seizures before they can
put steroid dealers away for significant prison terms.
"You need 50 units of steroids to get the same penalty
you get for one unit of heroin or cocaine," says Gary Wadler, a World Anti-Doping Agency advisor who called
for stiffer penalties for steroid offences at a U.S.
Sentencing Commission hearing in September.
"Prosecutors have a budget, and they have to figure out
how to utilize their resources in the best way. This is
not a surprise. Compared to steroids, heroin and cocaine
give them more bang for their buck."
Rick Collins, a Long Island defense attorney who
specializes in steroid cases, says the Anabolic Steroid
Control Act of 1990 - the federal law that made steroids
illegal - was sporadically enforced for years after its
passage. Increased scrutiny of international packages
after 9/11 prompted authorities to ramp up enforcement,
but Collins says most defendants are small-timers who
purchase steroids for cosmetic reasons.
"Most of the users I've represented have been mature
adults who are otherwise law-abiding people using
steroids for cosmetic reasons," he says.
The eight companies indicted under Operation Gear
Grinder operated under the guise of veterinary medicine
suppliers, but most of the products listed on company
Web sites were anabolic steroids sold in doses fit only
for humans. Customers could place orders by phone or
E-mail, pay by wire transfers and have steroids smuggled
across the U.S.-Mexico border or shipped directly to
them.
Five men are already in custody, including Alberto
Saltiel-Cohen, a Mexico City veterinarian who owns three
companies that manufacture and distribute steroids. One
of those companies, Quality Vet, produced the steroid
Plano police found in Taylor Hooton's bedroom shortly
after his suicide.
"It was rather satisfying," Hooton says, "to watch this
man be arraigned in federal court."
1 0 - 0 7 - 2 0 0 7 3 Mexican firms plead guilty to selling steroids
Los Angeles Times
SAN DIEGO — Three Mexico-based companies that manufactured anabolic steroids pleaded guilty
Monday in federal court to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in the U.S.
The three — Denkall, Quality Vet, and Animal Power — agreed to forfeit $1.4 million in profits.
The three used websites to attract customers in the U.S. Until late 2005, the three were the
source of more than 75% of all Mexican steroids seized in the U.S., prosecutors said.
The businesses were indicted in December 2005 along with five other Mexican anabolic steroid
manufacturers in what the Drug Enforcement Administration then called its largest operation against
suppliers of the banned substances. According to the DEA, the steroid manufacturers tried to mask
their intent by marketing their products for use in animals.
Messages left with defense attorneys were not immediately returned Monday.
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