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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 - 1 1 - 2 0 0 4 Steroid case defendant says he's not guilty
November 24, 2004
A Bosnian bodybuilder alleged to be the Des Moines link in an international steroid distribution conspiracy insisted Tuesday that he had no plans to use or distribute the drugs that arrived at his door 19 months ago.
Admir "Dado" Kantarevic, 33, a personal trainer whose customers say has always preached natural methods, said he is named in a federal court indictment only because of a box he received in the mail.
Kantarevic said the package arrived anonymously from Thailand months after he apparently asked for help from a well-known bodybuilder. Milos Sarcev, a 40-year-old former Mr. Yugoslavia with ties to a larger steroid investigation in California, also is named in the Iowa indictment, along with Dennis Tyron James, 35, a Thailand resident whom Kantarevic identified as a friend of Sarcev's.Kantarevic, who came to the United States in 1995, said he's happy with his American life and wouldn't tempt fate with anything illegal.
"It's like a dream come true," he said. "Why would I give that dream away?"
Federal court papers filed Monday in Des Moines charge Sarcev, James and Kantarevic with a conspiracy to import anabolic steroids between February and April 2003. Sarcev and Kantarevic also are charged with importation of steroids; Kantarevic alone is charged with possessing them with an intent to distribute. Kantarevic said the package arrived in his mail in early 2003, months after Kantarevic had recruited some of his clients to pay for a $2,000 bodybuilding seminar with Sarcev in Des Moines.
Sarcev was grateful to him for arranging the session, Kantarevic said. In return, Kantarevic asked for help with his training.
"He doesn't say what he's going to do," Kantarevic said. "He just says, 'I'm going to help you get better performance.' "
ESPN The Magazine reported in March that federal agents had raided Sarcev's home last year, seizing his computer and other items. According to the magazine, Sarcev has designed workouts for clients of BALCO owner Victor Conte Jr., who has been indicted in California on charges of steroid distribution and money laundering.Sarcev's New York attorney previously has denied that Sarcev is a steroid dealer. On Tuesday, lawyer Rick Collins said he has "yet to see a shred of proof that my client had anything to do with this case."
The Des Moines case, now slated for a Jan. 3 trial, is the latest in a series of federal crackdowns on steroid use since President Bush took office in 2000. Conte, whose Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative is accused of providing big-name athletes with steroids, has been under federal scrutiny since 2003.Several of Kantarevic's clients said they were surprised to learn of the steroid allegations this week.
Linda Wilson, who has lost more than 100 pounds under about four years of Kantarevic's tutelage, said Kantarevic has never preached anything but natural bodybuilding to her.
"I suppose the court will sort it out," she said. "But if somebody told me Dado was doing this, I wouldn't believe it."
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