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0 8 - 0 2 - 2 0 0 5 Gym owner jailed for importing steroids
February 8, 2005
A southern NSW gym owner has been jailed for importing large quantities of illegal drugs disguised a vitamin supplements into Australia. The Australian Customs Service said Lawrence Butler, 57, of Albury, was sentenced in the District Court in Bathurst to 27 months in jail. A customs spokesman said Butler pleaded guilty to six charges of importing steroids, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, and one charge of possessing steroids. Steroids are performance-enhancing drugs while ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are stimulants used in the manufacture of methylamphetamine, also known as speed. Butler was arrested after a customs officers intercepted eight packages from Malaysia containing 56,000 pseudoephedrine tablets. NSW Customs Regional Director David Collins said the importation was a highly sophisticated attempt to conceal a large amount of illegal drugs. "The pseudoephedrine that we intercepted had been carefully disguised as vitamin supplements complete with promotional literature from a bogus health company," he said. Customs investigators and NSW police also searched Butler's home and a gym he owned and operated in Albury. They found about six kilograms of pseudoephedrine tablets and 1.75 kilograms of steroids concealed in a wall cavity in a washroom at the gym. Butler was fined $38,000 and will have to serve at least 20 months of his sentence. |
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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
