Operation Raw Deal

[Houshyamama]

Am I the only one seeing this or has this already been posted? Huge News.

By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
September 24, 2007
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(Photo courtesy DEA)

An international investigation code-named Operation Raw Deal that culminated in the last four days could produce the next steroids scandal in sports – and perhaps the biggest yet.

The undercover operation led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration resulted in the seizure of massive amounts of anabolic steroids from an illegal, underground network and the ability to identify hundreds of thousands of people who received steroids and other substances used by some athletes as performance-enhancing drugs, a DEA spokesman told Yahoo! Sports on Sunday.

Most of the raids took place in the United States, and the DEA called the steroids crackdown the largest in U.S. history. DEA offices in New York and San Diego provided lead guidance during an investigation that resulted in 124 arrests and seizures at 56 labs across the country. Investigators also seized 71 weapons, 27 pill presses, 25 vehicles and three boats, but the coveted item was illegal drugs, and the DEA said it intercepted a staggering quantity.

Also, federal officials are creating a database of names of the people who received steroids, human growth hormone (HGH) and other drugs banned by most sports leagues and athletic associations, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.

OPERATION RAW DEAL

The Drug Enforcement Administration led a massive, undercover operation that targeted the illegal importation and distribution of steroids, human growth hormone and other medications. A primary source of the illicit drugs was coming from Chinese manufacturers.

Countries involved in the operation:

United States
(26 states)
China
Mexico
Canada
Belgium

Australia
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Thailand

"I have no information about any athletes yet," Payne said when asked about the names in the database and others implicated in the case. But he acknowledged the possibility of athletes being linked to the investigation that focused largely on steroids, HGH and other drugs being manufactured by Chinese companies and flooding the U.S. market.

"Of course, performance-enhancing drugs are an issue right now," Payne told Yahoo! Sports during a telephone interview. "They're in the news, and they're in the news because there have been athletes that have been tied to them. We know that's what this story is."

Steroids, HGH and other drugs seized in the raids promote muscle growth and speed recovery from injury, and athletes have used them despite the risk of suspensions and permanent bans from sport.

Whether Major League Baseball, the NFL and other sports bodies can gain access to the database and search for athletes who received substances banned by the respective sports organizations will be up to top officials at the Justice Department and DEA, according to Payne.

"Anything is possible," he said.

Typically, DEA investigations focus on drug suppliers and dealers. But now that the DEA has the ability to identify the largest numbers of people who received illegal shipments of drugs during Operation Raw Deal, Payne said, "If you are one of those people, you could get a knock at your door."

U.S. officials enlisted the help of China and eight other countries in an investigation that targeted more than 35 Chinese companies that produce raw materials used to make steroids and HGH, and in some cases finished product, sold illegally on the global underground network, Payne said.

China has emerged as the leading supplier of illicit steroids and HGH since the DEA began targeting Mexico suppliers two years ago. U.S. authorities said the operation that shut down steroids manufacturers in Mexico temporarily cut into the supply in the United States, but Chinese suppliers stepped in.

Last week, Yahoo! Sports obtained documents that showed HGH imported from China was seized in the Signature Pharmacy scandal. High-profile athletes linked to that investigation, launched by the district attorney in Albany County, N.Y., include baseball players Rick Ankiel, Gary Matthews Jr., Troy Glaus and Jay Gibbons; NFL safety Rodney Harrison; boxer Evander Holyfield; and a dozen pro wrestlers.

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A steroid lab seized on Long Island, N.Y., as part of Operation Raw Deal.
(Photo courtesy DEA)

The role of Chinese companies in supplying steroids to the underground market figures to be sensitive for China considering the country will play host to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in August. But the investigation could prove even more damaging to the world of sports.

Major League Baseball has scrambled to control recent news leaks of players connected to the Signature scandal. Last week, an arbitration panel upheld the results that showed American cyclist Floyd Landis used synthetic testosterone during his riveting comeback victory in the 2006 Tour de France. And for months, during his successful quest to overtake Hank Aaron as baseball's all-time home run king, Barry Bonds reignited controversy from a steroids scandal that stemmed from a 2003 raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) that ensnared Bonds and several other well-known athletes.

On Monday, the sports world will learn of the latest potential bombshell. Officials are scheduled to announce details of Operation Raw Deal during news conferences in New York and San Diego.

Investigators hauled in countless bags and boxes loaded with steroids that have a street value potentially exceeding $50 million, Payne said. The stockpile included 11.4 million doses of steroids, which based on the 0.5 milliliter per dose used by the DEA for calculations, amounts to about 570,000 vials that each hold 10 milliliters.

PRIMARY DRUGS SEIZED

• Anabolic steroids
• Human growth hormone
• Human chorionic gonadotropin: used to stimulate natural production of testosterone
• Insulin growth factor 1: A protein that enhances muscle growth

Payne said he had no figures for the amount of HGH and other drugs seized in an operation that involved the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center.

"These buyers are solely motivated by a desire to gain an unfair competitive advantage by using illegal performance-enhancing substances," said Terry Vermillion, Director of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, in a statement provided to Yahoo! Sports.

But Payne said rather than catching athletes who use banned drugs, the objective was to stanch the flow of illegal steroids and other drugs into the U.S. Most of the drugs seized in the investigation were cooked up "in filthy conditions with no regard to safety," according to the DEA.

The Internet has emerged as a popular source for those seeking performance-enhancing drugs without the required prescription, prompting Operation Raw Deal to employ a four-pronged strategy. The investigation targeted U.S.-based websites that distribute materials such as conversion kits necessary to turn raw steroid powders into finished product; Internet body building discussion boards that teach individuals how to use, locate, and discreetly purchase steroids; raw material manufacturers and suppliers in China and other countries; and underground steroids labs in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

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DEA agents and local police make an arrest in Nassau County in Operation Raw Deal.
(Photo courtesy DEA)

Other countries involved in the coordinated international crackdown included Belgium, Australia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Thailand.

"Operation Raw Deal uncovered a clandestine web of international drug dealers who lurk on the Internet for young adults craving the artificial advantage of anabolic steroids," Karen P. Tandy, the DEA administrator, said in a statement.

In addition to steroids and HGH, the operation targeted Insulin Growth Factor and underground trafficking of ancillary and counterfeit medications. Other drugs seized included cocaine, marijuana, Ecstasy, painkillers, anti-anxiety medications and Viagra.

The DEA lauded Chinese officials for their participation in the effort, but whether China disciplines the manufacturers or discloses information remains to be seen. U.S. officials provided Chinese authorities with information packets about more than 35 Chinese companies that allegedly supplied raw materials for steroids, HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs and are involved in the illicit underground trade around the world. But U.S. officials will withhold the names of those companies in deference to China.

DEA officials said they launched the operation in large part because of health risks in taking drugs that often are mislabeled. The potential side effects include strokes, liver damage and heart disease, experts say.

Though the impact of Operation Raw Deal on sports remains uncertain, the DEA's work is not done when it comes to a crackdown on the illegal trafficking of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, Payne said.

"This is not a case with a beginning and an end," he said. "I like to look at it more as an initiative.

"This is a huge initiative."


Another Article Here (http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_ylt=AnDhjnfjoHD2Ek6F3IG.DB05nYcB?slug=dw-wetzelsteroids092407&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)

[theAPAOps5]

Good for them. What always makes me scratch my head is when they show photos of these "labs" they are in some dudes 70's style bedroom or the basement, or the garage. People are ingesting stuff from literally some dudes house. Man people are crazy.

[RaiderH8r]

Man, Rodney Harrison just lost his hookup. He is gonna be pissed.

[Beantown Bronco]

How much would it cost to bribe some low level DEA guy to add Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne's names to this master list at some point in the next few days?

[theAPAOps5]

How much would it cost to bribe some low level DEA guy to add Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne's names to this master list at some point in the next few days?

Not just add it but mysteriously leak it to Roger Goodell too.

[broncofan2438]

Yea saw it on ESPN this morning. Maybe our front seven should take some so they don't look like little girls out there!

[Houshyamama]

This could seriously turn sports upside down. I have long suspected that a huge percentage of professional athletes use performance enhancing drugs. As far as I know, synthetic IGF-1 is very hard to detect and now they will be able to tell who actually used it. The article says they found the "identify [of] hundreds of thousands of people who received steroids and other substances". This could be HUGE.

[Broncos123]

Yea saw it on ESPN this morning. Maybe our front seven should take some so they don't look like little girls out there!

We know our front seven is not taken any, we would not look like little girls out there if they were taking it.

[DomCasual]

You know, on a daily basis, one of the top three or four items on my to-do list is as follows:

-ingest pills that were a) manufactured in China, and b) sitting in a five-gallon paint bucket in some guy's basement.

Because, you know, if you can't trust the Chinese with the things you put in your body, who can you trust?

[400HZ]

Why would a company selling illegal performance enhancing drugs keep records?

[CBF1]

Looks like one of Romanowski's old stashes of "suppliments"

[PLOWHORSE]

Why would a company selling illegal performance enhancing drugs keep records?

Because they need their names and addresses for mailing purposes.

[Garcia Bronco]

Why would a company selling illegal performance enhancing drugs keep records?

I thought the samething as well. Once you get the money and send the shippment, why would you keep that info? Laziness is why

[Houshyamama]

By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
September 24, 2007

SAN DIEGO – Federal officials on Monday refused to discuss how many athletes might be on a list of thousands of people who received performance-enhancing drugs during the largest steroids bust in U.S. history. But after a news conference during which officials outlined the results of Operation Raw Deal, a sports official offered a hint about athletes who likely won't be on the list.

Those wearing red, white and blue.

U.S. Olympic athletes could emerge unscathed from the scandal, according to Travis Tygart, who oversees the drug-testing program for the Olympic team. Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and an adviser during the 20-month international investigation that culminated in four days of raids last week, said the evidence he has seen suggests the list does not include athletes expected to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

"We're pleasantly surprised, very surprised at this point," Tygart said.

The findings might foretell equally good news for Major League Baseball and the NFL. Even though the leagues have taken action against players who have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and acknowledge it's a problem, they could join U.S. Olympic athletes among the unscathed.

People who buy steroids and other drugs online often use fake names and otherwise mask their identity. Professional athletes seeking drugs might be especially reluctant to use their real names and home addresses. And highly paid athletes also might be more apt to go through a physician for a prescription than resort to the Internet for purchases.

But for now, Major League Baseball and the NFL can only wait and worry while the list remains largely secret. Tygart apparently is the lone sports official privy to contents of the list – a database of the names of people who received steroids, HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs during the investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration – and officials offered no indication if or when they might share the information with other sports officials or make the information public.

But for at least a moment Monday, speculation gave way to debate about the significance of the list. A DEA spokesman said the steroids seized in the raids could have supplied "hundreds of thousands of people."

Clearly relieved that the U.S. Olympic team apparently will avoid embarrassment, Tygart declared it "a day of vindication for the clean athletes who compete ethically."

But others said it was time for a reality check, and that elite athletes – especially those good enough to make the U.S. team that will compete in Beijing – are smart enough to procure drugs without leaving a paper trail that could be discovered during a sting such as Operation Raw Deal.

On Monday, federal officials said a high volume of steroids seized were bought on the Internet rather than the so-called wellness clinics in Florida where major-league baseball players and other athletes have bought steroids and human growth hormone, or from the likes of Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) at the center of the scandal that implicated Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and several other U.S. Olympic athletes.

"If you are an athlete or a coach and you are going to dope, and you know you're in a stringent testing program, you are going to try to do it in ways that you're not going to get caught," Tygart said. "And the easiest way not to get caught is to go through some unknown source sitting behind your computer at home and doing it essentially at your own house. That's the easiest way to get away with it, if you think you can get away with it."

But Conte found the notion of elite athletes buying steroids on the Internet as laughable. Instead of going high-tech, Conte said, wizened athletes now eschew high-tech, and traceable, avenues.

"Instead of ordering on the Internet, it's the friend of a friend of a friend buying it out of the trunks of cars in the dark alleys behind gyms," Conte said during a phone interview. "They're just reverting back to using the old-fashioned techniques."

Of athletes who get caught buying drugs online, Conte said, "These guys are stupid for giving their names, addresses and credit card numbers to an online pharmacy when all they have to do is have a friend of a friend of a friend walk into a gym and buy it for them."

Charles Yesalis, a retired professor at Penn State and steroids expert, believes that instead of dark alleys, elite athletes head into well-lit doctors' offices. He cited James Shortt, a physician who lost his medical license after authorities discovered he had prescribed performance-enhancing drugs to members of the Carolina Panthers team that reached the Super Bowl four seasons ago. The only difference between Shortt and other physicians who prescribe steroids for professional athletes, Yesalis said, is that Shortt was one of the few to get caught.

"They don't do what a buddy of mine a year ago called cowboy chemistry," he said. "They have people like me plan it all out for them. Elite athletes have access to physicians who will prescribe this for them. As long as the doctor doesn't go large scale with it, it will stay under the radar.

"Keep in mind, prescriptions are written daily around the United States for testosterone and human growth hormone for purposes that no one would question."

On another topic, Tygart and Conte share common ground. Tygart said the BALCO scandal, in which 14 Olympic athletes were suspended, has instilled a fear that has curbed the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Conte said he agrees that doping in sports has declined thanks to government involvement that broke open the scandal involving BALCO in 2003, Signature Pharmacy earlier this year and more than 50 labs across the United States shut down during Operation Raw Deal.

The government's ability to wiretap phones, intercept emails and execute search warrants has proved far more effective than testing when it comes to curbing the use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to Conte.

"It is less of a problem today than it was? The answer is yes," Conte said. "Are they making progress? The answer is yes. But to suggest that it's all cleared up now is nothing more than propaganda."