Bodybuilders, Wrestlers and Athletes (Professional and Amateur)
Professional wrestlers have one of the highest mortality rates I know of with some sources reporting average life expectancies in the early 40s! Much of this appears to be due to suicide, a well known problem associated with anabolic steroid use (more basically, anabolic steroids cause huge emotional swings, impulsivity and decreased inhibitions). Other side effects of steroids that can be contributing to the high mortality rate include high blood pressure, very low HDL cholesterol (the good form of cholesterol), and obstructive sleep apnea.
Keith Ashabranner, 32, of O'Fallon, pleaded guilty Feb. 6 in federal court in St. Louis to one charge of conspiracy to possess and distribute human growth hormone.
He is scheduled to be sentenced May 4 by U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel. Ashabranner faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. His codefendant, Gregory Loomans, 40, of St. Charles, pleaded guilty in December and is scheduled to be sentenced March 16.
According to court documents, the two men were body builders and frequented gyms in St. Charles County.
They admitted with their pleas that they bought steroids and human growth hormone from China. The packages, according to court documents, were deliberately mislabeled. Sometimes the label said "mechanical parts."
The two men injected a portion of the drugs and sold and distributed the remaining drugs to other body builders in Missouri. In his plea agreement, Ashabranner admitted spending about $32,483 for the Chinese drugs.
According to court records, Loomans ultimately had an adverse reaction to the drugs and had to seek help from a doctor.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Office of Criminal Investigation for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Missouri South Central Drug Task Force investigated the case, with assistance from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Homeland Security Investigations.
The illegal trade in performance-enhancing drugs and anabolic steroids is booming. In a SPIEGEL interview, Vienna-based investigator Andreas Holzer talks about their hidden dangers, growing use by amateur athletes and why the problem will only continue to worsen.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Holzer, in January 2009, a special commission headed by you began investigating doping networks. Since then, the success rates of Austrian winter athletes have dropped significantly. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, for example, they captured seven fewer medals than they did four years earlier…
Andreas Holzer: … and you see a connection between the two?
SPIEGEL: You don't?
Holzer: In one year's time, a small special commission cannot cripple doping structures that have been in place for a long time. But we did delve deeply into the material.
SPIEGEL: And what have you found?
Holzer:That the doping trade is a globally networked business comparable to the drug trade -- a mafia, pure and simple.
SPIEGEL: In October, your unit was involved in "Operation Pangea," a major raid in 45 countries that netted 76 suspects and illegal medications with a total market value of roughly $2.6 million (€2 million). Where does it all come from?
Holzer: Many compounds come from China, India or Pakistan, where production is cheap and no one gives any thought to the fact that the production process alone can be hazardous to your health. The active ingredients are sold by online suppliers -- often through illegal online pharmacies -- and are shipped via airmail.
SPIEGEL: Are there inspections of these shipments?
Holzer: There are. But, owing to the sheer volume of mail -- and the fact that drugs are disguised within ordinary-looking packages -- without any concrete leads, it's difficult to pick out any suspicious packages.
SPIEGEL: Where do the drugs finally end up?
Holzer: The dealers are often based in Europe -- and that's where the real business gets started. It isn't the manufacturers of the raw ingredients that are making the big profits: rather, it's the producers -- that is, the people who mix the substances in laboratories, fill the finished product into vials and capsules, label them and distribute them around the world.
SPIEGEL: How big are the profits?
Holzer:Average production costs for a package of anabolic steroids run around 50 cents; and then it's sold for €35 to €40. We arrested a dealer in Austria who had made about €2 million in four years' time. Even I am surprised by these kinds of figures. I spent a long time working as a narcotics investigator, which is why I can say that anyone who deals drugs today is exposed to far greater risks than used to be the case. The doping trade isn't just more lucrative; production is less costly and complicated, and shipping is very simple.
SPIEGEL: Stefan Matschiner, the former track and field athlete and sports manager, was recently convicted of trading in doping substances. The case attracted attention because Matschiner was also selling EPO, an endurance-enhancing hormone.
Holzer: I'm convinced that it wasn't an isolated case.
SPIEGEL: Is EPO also being shipped from Asia?
Holzer: In one of the cases we investigated, the dealer was being supplied by a nearby pharmacy. The pharmacist bought the material for €350 and resold it for €550. Other dealers obtained EPO by using forged prescriptions. It even occasionally happens that entire shipments of EPO are stolen from shipping containers and make their way onto the marketplace. That just goes to show how great the demand is.
SPIEGEL: The most outlandish concoctions are sold on the market, including testosterone creams and high-dose anabolic steroid pills. How are these kinds of thing manufactured?
Holzer: You shouldn't be imagining scenes involving doctors or chemists in white coats handling test tubs in a laboratory. In fact, it looks much more like the production of methamphetamines in meth labs, where the drugs are cooked up over a Bunsen burner. In (the southern Austrian state of) Carinthia, we discovered a laboratory in an apartment that included pure substances and a capsule-making machine. The machine is used to fill the active ingredient into tablet capsules or vials. The equipment is readily available, and the production process is simple. And there are no limits to creativity. For example, anabolic "blades" are the latest hit. They're wafers the size of a DIN-A4 piece of paper, onto which the agent -- usually anabolic steroids -- is sprayed. Consumers break off the pre-perforated dose segments and dissolve them on their tongues.
SPIEGEL: What is the quality of the drugs from these makeshift kitchens?
Holzer: Professional production isn't feasible in underground laboratories. No one guarantees sterility, cleanliness or quality. We have questioned athletes who had handball-sized abscesses on their arms that were caused by contaminated compounds. Convicted producers report that they occasionally put twice as much of the active agent into vials so as to guarantee the desired effect beyond the expiration date.
SPIEGEL: How do athletes and dealers of doping agents find each other?
Holzer: By word of mouth, in places such as health clubs, and on online forums. Professional athletes also look for dealers in these same ways. Indeed, only very few of them have a team physician who will take care of everything for them. As a rule, athletes keep an eye on the scene in the various forums and get tips from older athletes. Then they select a doping-agent dealer whom other athletes have already had good experiences with.
SPIEGEL: Where do the deals go down?
Holzer: I don't want to lump everything together, but the focus is on health clubs and shops where nutritional supplements are sold. In many of these shops, we have been able to seize bags full of anabolic steroids, growth hormones and counterfeit Viagra pills. They're simply kept under the counter.
SPIEGEL: Going shopping in a health club could be risky for a high-profile athlete. Are there other ways to get hold of the drugs?
'Those Who Want to Be Hip Get Testosterone Injections'
Holzer: Yes. We managed to arrest a doping dealer who traveled all over Austria for years, selling drugs out of the trunk of his car. Anyone who needed drugs just called his cell phone. The deliveries were then made at rest stops, in fast-food restaurants and in cafés. The man also sold his drugs in Germany.
SPIEGEL: Who are the buyers?
Holzer:Top athletes only represent a small slice of a dealer's customers. They make most of their money off recreational athletes. For example, during our investigation, we encountered amateur athletes who had invested about €7,000 in doping drugs to prepare for a marathon -- merely to move up from 1,024th place to 912th place. It's absurd.
SPIEGEL: At what age does the demand begin?
Holzer: The youngest athletes who are engaging in recreational sports and doping are 15 or 16. In my opinion, this has to do with the change in lifestyle. Nowadays, everything has to happen as quickly and easily as possible. In the past, smoking pot was the cool thing to do. But, these days, those who want to be hip get testosterone injections to build their muscles or take ephedrine to lose weight. There is an acute danger that, in a few years, addiction levels related to performance-enhancing drugs will catch up with those for conventional drugs.
SPIEGEL: What are the potential side effects associated with doping?
Holzer:The people affected have reported reduced sex drives, strokes and heart attacks. Some people with cancer attribute it to their addiction to doping drugs. Almost all the people who take these drugs suffer from severe depression, and some people have frequent outbursts of aggression. When this happens, the only remedy is another fix of the drug, which of course isn't prescribed by a doctor. It's a vicious cycle.
SPIEGEL: Austria enacted an anti-doping law three years ago. In Germany, politicians and associations have resisted such a step, arguing that existing laws against drugs are sufficient. Are they underestimating the problem?
Holzer: Fighting the doping business is still considered exotic. As its investigators, we are sometimes confronted with the accusation that there are more important problems to be dealt with. This may be true. But it is my belief that, in a few years -- and without coordinated countermeasures -- the trade in doping drugs and counterfeit prescription drugs will be just as big as the trade in heroin, cocaine and cannabis products.
SPIEGEL: What kinds of measures are needed?
Holzer: We need harmonized international laws that make international police and judicial cooperation possible. If we don't get these, in the long run, the battle will be pointless. One network that we uncovered extends from Austria all the way to California. We received a lot of support from our colleagues with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). But this only worked because the Americans have good laws in this area.
SPIEGEL: Jeff Novitzki, the former special agent for the US Internal Revenue Service, became famous after his investigation led to the conviction of Marion Jones, the former world champion track and field athlete. Now Novitzki is investigating cycling star Lance Armstrong as an agent for the Food and Drug Administration. Do you also have your sights set on such prominent athletes?
Holzer: We aren't focusing on a specific famous athlete. I'm not interested in big names. We want to understand the system and stop the products.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Holzer, thank you for this interview.
By Susan Haigh AP Political Writer / April 12, 2010
HARTFORD, Conn.—Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons on Monday accused his rival for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, Linda McMahon, of interfering with a 20-year-old criminal investigation into steroid use by wrestlers.
Simmons, who spoke to reporters at the state Capitol, said he is troubled by a 1989 confidential memo that McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, wrote to a staff member. It instructed the employee to stop a ring doctor from attending company wrestling events and to "clue him in on any action that the Justice Department is thinking of taking" against him for steroid distribution.
The memo, which was included in court records, was reported Friday evening by The Day of New London.
Simmons said McMahon "interfered in a federal criminal investigation in order to cover up links between the WWE and the steroid dealer, Dr. George Zahorian."
The memo was referred to in the 1994 indictment of McMahon's husband, Vince, and Titan Sports, the firm that operated the World Wrestling Federation -- now called WWE -- on steroids-related charges.
Two of the charges ultimately were dismissed. Vince McMahon and Titan were acquitted of a third charge. Linda McMahon was not charged with any crimes.
Ed Patru, a spokesman for McMahon's campaign, called it "a reckless and outrageous and irresponsible thing" to suggest McMahon interfered in the criminal case against Zahorian, who ultimately was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Patru noted that the memo, which a judge and jury reviewed in the 1994 case, did not lead to any obstruction of justice charges against McMahon.
"I think the voters understand that when a court case that happened 17 years ago was litigated and the defense was cleared and exonerated on all charges, that that speaks for itself," he said.
Simmons, who's looking ahead to the May 21 convention when a Republican candidate will be nominated, said even the appearance of obstructing justice can be a problem.
"Look, you don't have to be convicted, you don't even have to be indicted, for legitimate questions to be raised about your candidacy," he said. "It's a higher standard, based on the idea that public office is a public trust."
Derek Quizon - Apr. 19, 2010 09:07 AM The Arizona Republic
Stroke victim Matthew Wiese stands out among the patients being treated at the Valley of the Sun Rehabilitation Hospital in Glendale. His massive size - 6 feet 5 and about 260 pounds - gives the 36-year-old an imposing presence that contrasts starkly with the vulnerability he reveals when he opens his mouth to speak.
He talks slowly and softly, at times struggling to finish a sentence or a thought - the last person you would expect to be performing live and on television for millions of people. Although the symptoms of Wiese's stroke are typical, the events that led to it are anything but. Known to wrestling fans as Luther Reigns, Wiese performed in sold-out arenas across the country as one of World Wrestling Entertainment's biggest stars for nearly two years.
It sounds like a dream come true for any aspiring pro wrestler, but for Wiese, it was also a period marked by tremendous physical pain and drug abuse, which he said was exacerbated by a culture of steroid and painkiller abuse that led to the debilitating stroke he experienced in December.
"We wrestled every night, damn near every night," Wiese said. "We were beat to hell. So we needed pain pills to do our job."
In addition to the 40 to 50 pain pills he took each day, Wiese said, he was on steroids, a habit he carried over from his time at ASU and his stint in the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling organization.
His addiction continued after he retired from the WWE to manage his girlfriend's acting career. The years of drug abuse caught up to him when he suffered the stroke at his home last year.
Wiese's speech therapist, Beth Lynch, said a stroke at his age is not normal but probably is the result of years of drug abuse.
Wiese's drug habits predate his days as a professional wrestler - his steroid abuse dates to his days working as a bouncer in Tempe - but he said the lifestyle surrounding his wrestling career only worsened his addictions.
Beginning his career with WCW in Atlanta under the name "Horshu," Wiese said he felt pressure to be big with both organizations.
"Guys would say, 'You need to get bigger,' " Wiese said. "The bigger guys were the ones getting (TV appearances)."
Professional wrestling has struggled in recent years with the deaths of current and former stars, many of whom had histories of drug abuse. The high-profile deaths of WWE stars Eddie Guerrero in 2005 and Chris Benoit in 2007 brought national attention to steroid abuse.
The WWE instituted a random drug test policy in 2006, the year after Wiese retired. The policy subjects WWE performers to a minimum of four tests annually. A positive test results in a 30-day suspension and a battery of follow-up tests. Three positive tests result in the termination of a wrestler's contract.
The tests are administered by Aegis Sciences Corp. physicians David Black and Joseph Maroon. Maroon said the program has reduced drug use significantly.
"It's been hugely successful," Maroon said. "There's been at least a 90 percent drop in the detection of (banned) substances."
The random schedule of the testing, added Black, makes it difficult to avoid detection.
Wiese's characterization of drug use in WWE doesn't ring true with former star Hazem Ali, also known as Armando Estrada, who now owns a restaurant in Glendale. Ali said drug use is mostly a matter of personal choice, pointing to 6-foot-1, 225-pound WWE star Shawn Michaels as an example of someone who did not need to be particularly large to make it as a professional wrestler.
Ali began his stint with WWE in 2006, the year the new drug testing policy was implemented, which he acknowledged could be a reason he and Wiese had such different experiences. Still, he said, wrestlers become addicted to drugs through a series of personal choices.
"I think it was a different time," Ali said. "(But) I don't think it's a fair assessment to say, 'Wrestling causes this, or wrestling causes that.' It's a decision."
Wiese's main focus is now on recovery. Having blown most of the money he made from wrestling, he now relies on financial support from his mother and royalties from television and movie appearances. He attends outpatient therapy at Valley of the Sun Rehabilitation Hospital three times a week and hopes to move to Los Angeles to become a full-time actor after his therapy is over.
It could be months before he is well enough to begin acting again, but Wiese said the stroke turned out to be a positive experience because it freed him of the addictions that had plagued him for over a decade.
"This had to happen," he said. "This (stroke) was a gift from God."
Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic
Matthew Wiese concentrates during a therapy session at HealthSouth Valley of the Sun Rehabilitation Hospital. Attached to Wiese's face is VitalStim, an electrical stimulation therapy device.
Scott Siegel, who starred in 'The Wrestler', sentenced for dealing steroids and high-speed chase
The muscle-bound actor who portrayed a steroid dealer in the 2008 hit film "The Wrestler" got body slammed with a 63-month prison sentence Monday for distributing non-cinematic steroids and taking cops on a destructive 30-minute chase as he evaded arrest.
Scott Siegel of New Rochelle fled from DEA agents in his Cadillac Escalade on the night of Feb. 18, 2009, crashing through fences, ramming into police vehicles, and nearly running down several of his pursuers.
"He has a history of anxiety and depression," said Siegel's attorney, Barry Levin. "Between that and the self-medication of steroids, he had what you might call a "‘roid rage."
After Siegel was subdued, agents found a mountain of anabolic steroids in his home that dwarfed the small stash of drugs he sold to Mickey Rourke's lead character in a memorable locker-room scene of the 2008 film. Last October, Siegel pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids and two counts of assaulting, impeding and interfering with officers in the performance of their official duties.
Levin had sought a 24-month sentence for his client, but U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas – who happens to be the judge that sentenced BALCO sprinter Marion Jones to prison in 2008 – chose the high end of the sentencing spectrum for Siegel, who had previous drug convictions on his record.
Levin said his client might have faced up to 20 years in prison if he had not pleaded guilty.
"He accepted responsibility for his actions," said Levin. "He'd like to start his life fresh and turn his life around."
According to court papers, the evidence officers recovered from Siegel's home included more than 1,450 bottles of liquid steroids in liquid and approximately 28,000 tablets of oral steroids, along with $70,000 in cash and ledgers charting his steroid dealing.
Since his arrest, Siegel has been in a White Plains jail cell where Levin says he suffers from hormonal imbalances caused by years of steroid abuse.
"As a result of abusing steroids since his teenage years, he has developed a serious mood disorder with both manic and depressive aspects," Levin wrote in court papers.
Chris Klucsaritis, better known in the entertainment world as Chris Kanyon passed away on Friday night, leaving the world of wrestling to a silence. Kanyon, 40, was a great wrestler and had fans from the world of WCW. His death is being termed as a suicide from an overdose of pills. The wrestler also came to limelight when he joined the much famous the World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE. Just as we got to know from Michelle ‘Bombshell’ McGee’s ex that the lady is suffering from bipolar disorder, a little same was the case with Kanyon.
While some term his death to be a suicide, others have referred it to as a case of overdose of manySteroids. Kanyon was more famous as the “The Innovator of Offense” at the WCW, when he first made appearance in 1997 as the masked wrestler Mortis. Later he dropped the gig and formed the The Jersey Triad in 1999. The wrestler claimed much spotlight in the last year of WCW.
Later when WCW was purchased by WWE, the wrestler joined the new league and later disappeared in 2004 when he couldn’t get the same fame as what he had in WCW.
Kanyon’s body was found in his apartment in the city of New York. An overdose of medication took his life and the pill bottle lied beside him with several notes scattered around his body. He had also spoken about killing himself sometime back as he was in severe depression issues.
Many competitive bodybuilders take anabolic steroids to achieve their freakishly exaggerated physiques. That is no secret. But steroids can be only one part of an extreme regimen that can wreak havoc on the body.
Antonecchia competing in the 2001 New World Strongest Man competition where he was the runner-up.
Human growth hormone, supplements, painkillers and diuretics can also be used to create the “shrink-wrapped” muscles so prized in the aesthetic. And the high concentration of muscle mass puts stress on the body, as if the lifter were obese.
Lifting weights in the gym is “extremely healthy for you,” said Kenneth Wheeler, a former elite bodybuilder known as Flex. “But if you want to be a bodybuilder and compete at the highest level, it has nothing to do with health.” A relatively rare form of kidney disease forced Wheeler to retire in 2003 at age 37, and he needed a kidney transplant later that year.
Determining the extent of the damage that bodybuilders inflict on themselves is difficult, in part because there is little interest in financing studies on such an extreme group, and because bodybuilders are not always honest about what they take. That is why a case study published last month by a top kidney journal is generating interest in the nephrology and bodybuilding communities. It is among the first to assert a direct link between long-term steroid use and kidney disease.
The study began 10 years ago when a kidney pathologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York noticed that a bodybuilder had an advanced form of kidney disease. Curious, she started looking for similar cases and eventually studied 10 men with serious kidney damage who acknowledged using steroids. Nine were bodybuilders and one was a competitive powerlifter with a similar training routine.
All 10 men in the case series, published in November by the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, showed damage to the filters of the kidney. Nine had an irreversible disease known as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis — the same disease contracted by Wheeler — even though the men in the study did not have other apparent risk factors. Their disease was worse than in obese patients with a higher body-mass index, suggesting that steroids — combined with the other practices — might be harming the kidneys.
Among the study’s most persuasive details is the story of a man, 30 years old at the time, who damaged his kidneys after more than a decade of bodybuilding. The patient’s condition improved after he stopped using the drugs, discontinued his regimen and lost 80 pounds. But it worsened after the man, who became depressed, returned to bodybuilding and steroids.
“These patients are likely the tip of the iceberg,” said Vivette D. D’Agati, the lead researcher. “It’s a risk. A significant risk.”
Several experts not affiliated with the study said that while the claims were intriguing, the study’s value was limited because it focused only on intensive steroid users and because the bodybuilders’ layered training practices had to be taken into account. “I think it’s hard to be certain what’s causing their kidney disease,” said William Bremner, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington and an endocrinologist who studies steroids.
D’Agati said, “It’s probably multiple factors that are converging in these patients, but the common entity in all of them is anabolic steroids.”
One participant in the study, Patrick Antonecchia, 46, competed in powerlifting and strong man events for more than 25 years and said he used steroids, supplements and a high-protein diet to attain feats such as pulling a 40,000-pound truck. He ended his career and stopped using steroids about a year ago, and in February received a diagnosis of serious kidney damage. His doctors warned him not to use the drugs again. “They said: ‘Pat. Don’t. Because it comes back,’ ” he said.
Antonecchia has lost about 50 pounds and said he misses the attention his 290-pound frame attracted: “The toughest thing now is it was my identity for 25 years. Now, when people see me, they say, ‘What happened to you?’ ”
Jerry Brainum writes a column for Iron Man Magazine called Bodybuilding Pharmacology and said he welcomes more research on the subject. “I found it very alarming, quite frankly,” Brainum said.
Since the 1990s, at least eight accomplished bodybuilders have died at a young age, and in addition to Wheeler, another six were forced to stop competing because of serious illness, often involving kidney disease.
The main source of information for bodybuilders is word of mouth and experimentation, Brainum said. “These guys have no guidance, they talk among themselves, and they don’t even tell the truth to each other,” he said.
The risk-taking has been made worse by a trend toward ever larger physiques among the sport’s top competitors, some said. Jay Cutler, who won the 2009 Mr. Olympia contest, weighs almost 40 pounds more than Arnold Schwarzenegger did when he won the title in 1974, even though Cutler is five inches shorter.
“Each decade you have a guy that comes along that sets new standards and you say O.K., now I’m going to have to take it to the next level,” said Shahriar Kamali, a professional bodybuilder known as King.
The International Federation of Body Building and Fitness reserves the right to test for steroids and human growth hormone at the professional level, and testing is done on a random basis, said Bob Cicherillo, athlete representative for the federation, which is the main governing body for bodybuilding.
But several bodybuilders said the testing was nearly nonexistent, and Cicherillo said he could not provide specific figures on competitors who tested positive. In addition, the chairman of the organization’s medical commission, Robert M. Goldman, is a leading champion of the anti-aging effects of human growth hormone, a drug that is banned by most sports governing bodies.
James Manion, who runs the professional division of the federation, did not return several calls seeking comment.
Some bodybuilders expressed doubt that their practices were dangerous, pointing to former competitors who are still healthy in their 70s. They attributed the deaths of elite bodybuilders to the abuse of over-the-counter painkillers and diuretics, not steroids. The bodybuilding federation tests for diuretics at professional events, although competitors said they are still used.
Bodybuilders said that they were unfairly singled out as drug abusers when athletes in most other sports were also using performance-enhancing drugs. “Like anything else, it’s use and abuse,” Cicherillo said. “We’re the ones who are visual. We’re the ones who walk around, and you see us with the big muscles.”
Wheeler said he was convinced steroid use did not cause his kidney disease, although it might have made it worse.
The patient whose case was the centerpiece of the kidney study said he was most likely predisposed to develop the condition. “The drugs weren’t the reason I got sick,” said the man, who declined to be identified because his steroid use was illegal. After taking a year off from steroids and bodybuilding because of the kidney disease, the man, age 34, is returning to competition. His symptoms have worsened, a sacrifice he said he is willing to accept.
“It’s just really hard to walk away from it,” he said. “I know I can only do this until my early 40s, so I really want to give it my all now.”
FORT BEND COUNTY -- Charles Brock Falkenhagen is considered to be a central player in the steroids and Human Growth Hormone or HGH that came through Fort Bend and Harris County, according to authorities.
Officers reveal central player of steriods case
May 28, 2009 A recently unsealed indictment revealed more about the accusations against the Sugar Land business owner.
Prosecutors claim he was using his business, Fitness Consultants, as a front to smuggle HGH into the U.S. from a company in China, and that he sold HGH, steroids and hydrocodone through phone calls, text messages and e-mail. The indictment also accuses Falkenhagen of laundering money and wiring tens of thousands of dollars to a bank account in China with the intent of smuggling HGH back into the U.S.
In total, there are 46 counts against Falkenhagen from smuggling to laundering to possession of illegal drugs.
On Wednesday, Fort Bend County authorities arrested more than 60 people allegedly involved with illegal bodybuilding drugs. Many were fitness trainers and body builders from gyms.
By JAMES PINKERTON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
May 28, 2009, 5:43AM
A complaint about steroid use in local gyms more than two years ago culminated Wednesday in the arrests of 66 bodybuilders and personal trainers accused of distributing hundreds of thousands of doses of anabolic steroids, human growth hormones and other substances in what authorities called the largest drug operation in Fort Bend County history.
Fort Bend County Sheriff Milton Wright said none of the 73 charged in the investigation were sports celebrities or high school athletes. One of those arrested, authorities said, was a Houston firefighter. Late Wednesday, Fort Bend sheriff’s deputies, U.S. marshals and drug agents were still searching for seven people named in warrants. (See a map of where the arrests happened here.)
“The majority of this thing is built around body trainers at fitness centers,” said Wright. “Their livelihood is getting customers they can develop physically — legally or illegally. It doesn’t matter in their eyes, as long as they get the job done.”
In all, 51 defendants were indicted on state charges in Fort Bend County, while another 22 were indicted on federal charges, authorities said. The investigation involved street dealers, distributors, importers and manufacturers, according to law enforcement officials.
“There’s been other offshoots from it because sometimes the steroids cause severe muscle pain and that leads to painkillers,” the sheriff said.
Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson identified one of the principal defendants facing federal charges as Charles Falkenhagen, who operated a Sugar Land business called Fitness Consulants. He is free on bail.
Officials said the investigation that led to Wednesday’s sweep began shortly before the arrest of Falkenhagen in late 2006, adding that a large inventory of steroids, HGH and diverted pharmaceutical drugs were found in his storage facility.
Charges facing the 22 federal defendants include money laundering and conspiracy to possess, distribute and manufacture a controlled substance, Johnson said. The 51 defendants charged by Fort Bend officials face charges of conspiracy to deliver, manufacture controlled substances or dangerous drugs, and could face up to ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Zoran Yankovich, special agent-in-charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Houston, said the Fort Bend investigation led agents to other suspects illegally importing raw products from China and elsewhere that were used to make batches of steroids and human growth hormone.
“The investigation started here with the sheriff’s office and we ended up following it to other areas where they were bringing in raw products, or were connected otherwise,” said Yankovich. “And it led us into California, Indiana, Louisiana, Georgia, and internationally where raw products were being imported from Mexico, Canada and China.”
Sheriff’s Lt. Glen Dening, of the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force, said authorities were concerned that those arrested could have recruited younger clients in local gyms.
“They (suspects) work out at all the local gyms in Fort Bend County, so, of course, the high school students have access to those gyms. So, inevitably, it’s going to happen. They’d end up customers of these steroid dealers,” Dening said.
He said a complaint about steroid use in local gyms two years ago led to surveillance of dealers selling hundreds of thousands of doses of anabolic steroids, human growth hormones, Ecstasy and other controlled substances, including Xanax, Viagra and other drugs.
“The fact that’s there is anabolic steroid usage in Fort Bend County — or anyplace, really — shouldn’t be surprising,” Fort Bend District Attorney John Healey said. “Hopefully, it will send a fairly strong message that law enforcement and prosecutors are happy to combine to bring the folks who bring it into our county to task.”
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Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic
