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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 4 - 0 5 - 2 0 0 6 Police: Rensselaer man was dealing steroids
Suspect accused of selling performance enhancers online
By BILL LAMBDIN A Rensselaer man is accused of dealing steroids and human growth hormone on the Internet.
Police say Christopher Magnano was importing the banned
substances from China They showed off their catch Wednesday morning. The confiscated material filled a large display table in the Colonie town courtroom.
Police from various local and federal agencies became aware of
the importing operation. They say Magnano was buying various
anabolic steroids and human growth hormone “I believe it’s coming from China because it’s cheaper to produce it over there and thereby cheaper to purchase it,” said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jack McQuade. Police raided Magnano's Rensselaer home where they say they found additional substances as well as cash, computers and an ounce of cocaine.
The material still needs to be tested. However, in addition to
believing it is not legal for Magnano to possess and sell it,
authorities also believe some of the material was never
intended for humans. Vials of vitamin B12 “Our interest in this is primarily the prescription drugs that are either unapproved, counterfeit or otherwise dangerous,” said Gary Tunkavige of the Food and Drug Administration. Police aren't clear on whether they think Magnano was selling the stuff locally. Their investigation continues. Magnano is charged with two Class B felonies and a Class D felony, all involving the sale and possession of controlled substances. Steroid bust largest in region, police say
Thousands of vials, pills, dollars found at Rensselaer home of Christopher J. Magnano at time of arrest
By DAN HIGGINS COLONIE -- The seizure of $50,000 in illegal steroids announced by town police and federal investigators today is the largest ever in the Capital Region, authorities said. Christopher J. Magnano, of 2 Sequoia Drive in Rensselaer, is facing charges he received illegal steroids through the mail and courier services from other countries and re-sold them on the Internet. Colonie Police, officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration's criminal enforcement arm conducted the investigation. Magnano, 33, was arrested last week, but today police offered more details of the investigation and displayed the results of a raid at the suspect's home. He faces three felony counts related to drug possession with the intent to sell. Magnano, who Colonie Police said has a drug arrest dating from the mid-1990s, allegedly ordered 2 kilograms of illegal anabolic steroids from a Chinese company. Federal officials said they had been watching him for a year and decided to move in when he was to receive the Chinese shipment. He was arrested on Friday at the DHL office on Wolf Road in Latham. Police executed a search warrant on his Rensselaer home and discovered the cache of illegal pills and vials of substances like human growth hormone. At the time of his arrest he also had approximately one ounce of powdered cocaine on him, which police said was for personal use. The raid also netted three laptop computers, several other hard drives, and about $3,000 in cash. Federal charges are pending, said Jack McQuade, the resident agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Albany, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. McQuade said the federal probe will include determining from which countries he was ordering the steroids. Charges could include illegal importation and money laundering, McQuade said. Magnano was arraigned last Friday and remanded to Albany County jail pending further court action. 2 5 - 0 5 - 2 0 0 6 Steroid stash seized at home
By DAN HIGGINS Magnano is accused of dealing substances that included human growth hormone, the anabolic steroid dianabol and tamoxifen. Magnano is charged with attempting to receive a 2-kilogram shipment of illegal anabolic steroids from a Chinese company inside a DHL courier service office on Wolf Road in Latham. He was arrested Friday and was released Wednesday night on $50,000 bail. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing. "This was pretty large by local standards," said Special Agent Gary Tunkavige of the New York Field Office of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations. He and other federal and local officials offered some details of the arrest as well as a display of the seized substances Wednesday. By state or national standards, Tunkavige said, "This wasn't a major bust, but a significant one." The case has renewed concerns about the the availability of steroids to teenagers, who will set aside long-term risk for the short-term gain of big muscles and better athletic performance, according to authorities. U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, introduced legislation last year that would force auction Web sites like eBay to police themselves for banned substances, including steroids. Sweeney has also called on Major League Baseball and other professional sports leagues to spend millions on educating youth about the dangers of steroids. "This is a public health issue," Sweeney said. Federal charges are pending for Magnano, said Jack McQuade, the resident agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Albany, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. McQuade's agency, along with Colonie police, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration's criminal enforcement arm conducted the investigation. McQuade said the federal probe will include determining from which countries he was ordering the steroids. Charges could include illegal importation and money laundering, McQuade said. Police arrested Magnano 12 years ago, calling him a major supplier of LSD to local high school students. He was sent to state prison for selling the hallucinogen and served less than a year, according to state prison records. In 1996, he pleaded guilty to selling hallucinogenic mushrooms while still on parole from the LSD conviction. He was sentenced to a term of 4 to 9 years and was released in 2000. Since his release, Magnano has worked at several Colonie car dealerships as a salesman -- a good one, according to at least one former employer. It was not immediately clear where he had worked most recently. On his arrest report, he listed his occupation as salesman, police said. 1 5 - 0 6 - 2 0 0 6 Garbage held clues in steroid import case
Court papers detail how agents sought evidence of alleged dealing
By DAN HIGGINS A two-year federal investigation of a North Greenbush man included intercepting his mail and, on one occasion, rifling through his trash before authorities charged him with attempting to receive anabolic steroids from China, according to documents filed in federal court. Christopher Magnano, 33, faces charges connected to what officials described as an Internet-based sales operation of the illegal substances, which were seized from his North Greenbush home following his May 19 arrest. Police said the seizure of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone was the largest ever in the Capital Region. The documents filed in U.S. District Court in Albany shed more light on the investigation that led agents to suspect Magnano. Magnano is charged with illegal possession of anabolic steroids with the intent to distribute. Federal officials said more charges could follow as the investigation continues. Authorities allege that when they confronted him, Magnano explained how he received anabolic steroids from China for several years and resold them over the Internet. But his attorney, Bryan Rounds, challenged that claim Tuesday. "The words attributed to my client were not spoken by him," Rounds said. He said whatever Magnano told investigators has been "pulled, twisted, and taken out of context," and that the paraphrasing in the court documents shows that it was a "second- or third-hand account." Rounds said no evidence shows that Magnano had any intention to sell the substances and that he questions whether the materials seized have been correctly tested and identified as illegal steroids. Magnano had been under suspicion by at least three federal agencies, according to an affidavit from a U.S. postal inspector. Postal inspectors had intercepted his mail, and agents from the Food and Drug Administration's criminal enforcement unit even searched the garbage outside his Sequoia Drive home, where they said they found empty bottles of anabolic steroids and used syringes. That information was used to obtain the search warrant that led to the seizure. In a statement, a postal inspector assigned to Troy said agents were alerted after Magnano set up several post office boxes around the Capital Region and received mail at his home address. He frequently received packages from other countries and was evasive on one occasion when postal employees asked him about a parcel's contents, according to the inspector's deposition. Adding to their suspicions, inspectors learned Magnano had a history of drug convictions. He served time in state prison for selling LSD and hallucinogenic mushrooms in the 1990s. Last year, the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations told a Troy-based postal inspector that their agency also was investigating Magnano. They suspected he had been receiving anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Kennedy Airport in New York City intercepted mail addressed to Magnano from China that they said contained the illegal substances. The week Magnano was arrested in May, FDA agents learned Magnano was going to receive another suspicious shipment from China. The authorities set up a bust in which police asked a DHL employee in Latham to call Magnano and tell him his package had arrived. When Magnano turned up to retrieve the package, an undercover agent handed it to him. That's when Colonie police took him into custody. According to court records, Magnano had packages in his car containing more illegal steroids that agents contend he was preparing to mail to his buyers. Magnano has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains free on bail. |
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