Tweet
Orlando Gear bust
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERESTING. Former Mr Olympia and other in the "Industry" are involved.
Albany DA raids Fla. steroids center
Yearlong investigation of Internet drug sales may expose use by pro athletes
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A downtown pharmacy was raided by a law enforcement task force on Tuesday, the climax of a large New York state grand jury investigation into Internet drug sales that could expose widespread illicit steroid use by professional athletes and thousands of people across the nation.
The unprecedented inquiry, led by Albany County's district attorney, has taken New York narcotics agents and an Orlando-based federal task force deep inside a maze of shadowy pharmacies and Web sites that have reaped millions of dollars in profit by allegedly exploiting federal and state ************ laws, according to court records.
More than two dozen doctors, pharmacists and business owners have been, or will be, arrested in the coming days in Alabama, Texas, Florida and New York on sealed indictments charging them with various felonies for unlawfully distributing steroids and other controlled substances, records show.
The Times Union has learned that investigators in the year-old case, which has been kept quiet until now, uncovered evidence that testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs may have been fraudulently prescribed over the Internet to current and former Major League Baseball players, National Football League players, college athletes, high school coaches, a former Mr. Olympia champion and another leading contender in the bodybuilding competition.
The customers include Los Angeles Angels center fielder Gary Matthews Jr., according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.
Sources also said investigators from the New York Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which is part of the state Department of Health, recently interviewed a top physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers about his alleged purchase last year of roughly $150,000 of testosterone and human growth hormone.
In the past several years, Internet-based pharmacies have become the new drug delivery system for tens of thousands of customers nationwide, displacing smugglers, overseas mail-order companies and so-called ``gym rat'' dealers who sell steroids from the trunks of their cars, according to state and federal investigators.
Tuesday's raid of Signature Pharmacy, an Orlando business that collected an estimated $36 million in revenue last year, could expose a long list of sports figures, celebrities and others who have turned to Internet pharmacies for illegal drugs such as steroids, authorities said.
``I don't know the names of a lot of the athletes,'' Lt. Carl Metzger, commander of the Orlando Metropolitan Bureau of Enforcement, said during Tuesday's raid.
``This is a criminal investigation, not an administative investigation,'' Metzger told a gaggle of TV reporters at the scene. ``I think that some of their business was legitimate,'' he said, adding that ``much of it was illegal.''
In a press release, Orlando police said the raid targeted steroids and human growth hormone. ``People forget about the damage steroids can cause,'' Metzger said. ``It goes all the way down to the high school level.''
Albany County District Attorney David Soares said his office pursued the case, in part, because New York has some of the strictest ************ drug laws in the country. In addition, Signature Pharmacy last year did an estimated $10 million in business in New York, he said.
Soares said that his critics will probably question why a local New York prosecutor is pursuing the case. ``We're arresting young men on street corners every day for selling drugs,'' he said. ``Signature did $30 million last year ... $250,000 in Albany County.''
Corruption in the Internet pharmaceutical industry, which has received lax oversight from federal authorities, has been organized and systemic, prompting Congressional hearings on the issue and a crackdown in recent months by federal agencies.
Some companies have enlisted unethical doctors who blindly write prescriptions for as little as $25 each, giving pharmacies the authorization they need to dole out thousands of illegal prescriptions, according to court documents filed in Albany, Orlando and in a related federal case in Rhode Island.
Customers usually have to pay high retail prices for their drugs, in part because many purchasers avoid seeking reimbursement from insurance carriers to escape detection. Mostly, they use cash, checks and credit cards to pay for the drugs.
``It's a complete perversion of the medical system,'' said Christopher Baynes, an Albany County prosecutor assigned exclusively to the case for almost a year.
Some federal agents have complained that until recently the Drug Enforcement Agency and other federal agencies had rarely filed criminal charges in such cases. Instead, they were content to revoke the operating permits of pharmacies that have doled out controlled substances, including addictive painkillers, to customers who have not been properly evaluated by a physician.
In part, an agent said, the unwillingness to prosecute the cases criminally has been a result of federal prosecutors in certain areas of the country being reluctant to take on the complex and time-consuming investigations.
While cases involving heroin, cocaine and other addictive street drugs receive enormous federal resources, law enforcement has been slow to catch on to the Internet pharmacies practices, said the agent, who spoke on condition he not be identified.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERESTING. Former Mr Olympia and other in the "Industry" are involved.
Albany DA raids Fla. steroids center
Yearlong investigation of Internet drug sales may expose use by pro athletes
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A downtown pharmacy was raided by a law enforcement task force on Tuesday, the climax of a large New York state grand jury investigation into Internet drug sales that could expose widespread illicit steroid use by professional athletes and thousands of people across the nation.
The unprecedented inquiry, led by Albany County's district attorney, has taken New York narcotics agents and an Orlando-based federal task force deep inside a maze of shadowy pharmacies and Web sites that have reaped millions of dollars in profit by allegedly exploiting federal and state ************ laws, according to court records.
More than two dozen doctors, pharmacists and business owners have been, or will be, arrested in the coming days in Alabama, Texas, Florida and New York on sealed indictments charging them with various felonies for unlawfully distributing steroids and other controlled substances, records show.
The Times Union has learned that investigators in the year-old case, which has been kept quiet until now, uncovered evidence that testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs may have been fraudulently prescribed over the Internet to current and former Major League Baseball players, National Football League players, college athletes, high school coaches, a former Mr. Olympia champion and another leading contender in the bodybuilding competition.
The customers include Los Angeles Angels center fielder Gary Matthews Jr., according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.
Sources also said investigators from the New York Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which is part of the state Department of Health, recently interviewed a top physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers about his alleged purchase last year of roughly $150,000 of testosterone and human growth hormone.
In the past several years, Internet-based pharmacies have become the new drug delivery system for tens of thousands of customers nationwide, displacing smugglers, overseas mail-order companies and so-called ``gym rat'' dealers who sell steroids from the trunks of their cars, according to state and federal investigators.
Tuesday's raid of Signature Pharmacy, an Orlando business that collected an estimated $36 million in revenue last year, could expose a long list of sports figures, celebrities and others who have turned to Internet pharmacies for illegal drugs such as steroids, authorities said.
``I don't know the names of a lot of the athletes,'' Lt. Carl Metzger, commander of the Orlando Metropolitan Bureau of Enforcement, said during Tuesday's raid.
``This is a criminal investigation, not an administative investigation,'' Metzger told a gaggle of TV reporters at the scene. ``I think that some of their business was legitimate,'' he said, adding that ``much of it was illegal.''
In a press release, Orlando police said the raid targeted steroids and human growth hormone. ``People forget about the damage steroids can cause,'' Metzger said. ``It goes all the way down to the high school level.''
Albany County District Attorney David Soares said his office pursued the case, in part, because New York has some of the strictest ************ drug laws in the country. In addition, Signature Pharmacy last year did an estimated $10 million in business in New York, he said.
Soares said that his critics will probably question why a local New York prosecutor is pursuing the case. ``We're arresting young men on street corners every day for selling drugs,'' he said. ``Signature did $30 million last year ... $250,000 in Albany County.''
Corruption in the Internet pharmaceutical industry, which has received lax oversight from federal authorities, has been organized and systemic, prompting Congressional hearings on the issue and a crackdown in recent months by federal agencies.
Some companies have enlisted unethical doctors who blindly write prescriptions for as little as $25 each, giving pharmacies the authorization they need to dole out thousands of illegal prescriptions, according to court documents filed in Albany, Orlando and in a related federal case in Rhode Island.
Customers usually have to pay high retail prices for their drugs, in part because many purchasers avoid seeking reimbursement from insurance carriers to escape detection. Mostly, they use cash, checks and credit cards to pay for the drugs.
``It's a complete perversion of the medical system,'' said Christopher Baynes, an Albany County prosecutor assigned exclusively to the case for almost a year.
Some federal agents have complained that until recently the Drug Enforcement Agency and other federal agencies had rarely filed criminal charges in such cases. Instead, they were content to revoke the operating permits of pharmacies that have doled out controlled substances, including addictive painkillers, to customers who have not been properly evaluated by a physician.
In part, an agent said, the unwillingness to prosecute the cases criminally has been a result of federal prosecutors in certain areas of the country being reluctant to take on the complex and time-consuming investigations.
While cases involving heroin, cocaine and other addictive street drugs receive enormous federal resources, law enforcement has been slow to catch on to the Internet pharmacies practices, said the agent, who spoke on condition he not be identified.
Comment