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 There's a new drug enforcement priority that's getting a lot of attention from federal officials. The Drug Enforcement Administration says they've just made the biggest international steroid bust in American history. "Operation Raw Deal" was an 18-month international investigation.
Agents made 124 arrests, including nine in the New York metropolitan area, and seized more than 11 million doses of drugs and $6 million in cash as they shut down 56 U.S. labs that manufactured steroids and human growth hormones. Much like methamphetamine, the steroids were manufactured in kitchens, garages, basements and bathrooms. "The message we want to sendto young athletes is that steroids do not open the door to athletic success," said John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the New York DEA, during a press briefing at the DEA's Manhattan headquarters.
"These dangerous drugs slam it shut. These steroids were manufactured under extremely unsanitary conditions. There was no such thing as quality control." According to officials, none of the defendants are professional athletes. However Gilbride said investigators are reviewing thousands of e-mails and documents seized in raids to identify the labs' customers. Authorities already have learned that some of the customers were bodybuilders.
One casualty of the raid is track and field star Marion Jones who won three gold medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She has relinquished her medals and retired from sports. "We are going over all this information to identify the end users," Gilbride said. "We have a lot of names of people who purchased steroids." Investigators said they spent a year and a half following the trail of raw materials, primarily from China, to labs in the United States.
Authorities described in court documents how manufacturers then used Web sites and Internet chat rooms to market and sell the drugs. The documents also describe how dealers used Western Union and international bank accounts to conduct financial transactions without being detected. The international investigation, Operation Raw Deal, included drug agents from Mexico, Germany, Denmark and Thailand.
Operation Raw Deal provides a model for law enforcement agencies and sports federations to work together to flush illegal performance-enhancing drugs from athletics, World Anti-Doping Agency director general David Howman said. "This is not just a U.S. thing," Howman said. "This is happening in Europe, it's happening in other places. We need to take a multinational approach." Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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