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LONDON—MI6 has learned that prisoners in Chinese labour camps have been used to test performance-enhancing drugs banned in Olympic sport. The targets for the drugs are British, U.S. and foreign athletes who could be tempted to take them to win a coveted medal. But discovery would see them banned from the Beijing Games. Andy Parkinson, a member of the UK Sports drug-free unit, has warned all British athletes hoping for a place in the country's Olympic Squad of the risks of disbarment. Marion Jones, America's former Olympic gold medallist, last year became the first high profile athlete to admit taking a Chinese drug, HGH, human growth hormone, and is banned from the Games. The drug is virtually undetectable after 24 hours of being injected. "We don't want the worldwide trafficking of these substances", said Parkinson. MI6 learned of the tests on Chinese prisoners held in gulags in the north of the country from a human rights organisation, the identity of which is being kept secret for fear its undercover members will face reprisals by the Beijing government. A member of the organisation has told MI6 if top Western athletes were caught taking the drugs, their automatic disbarment could pave the way "for Chinese athletes to walk away the medals. It is no secret that the Beijing regime sees the Games in much the same light as the Nazis did at the Berlin Games—an opportunity to showcase its global power on the track as well as elsewhere", said the activist. Certainly Marion Jones, who won the 100 metres at the Sydney Olympics in 2002, proved that hormones or steroids are the drug of choice for athletes—and pose the biggest threat to the Beijing Games being drug free. While the Chinese government insists it is running a major campaign to close down the export of the HGH drug—the reality is that the hormone is readily available from one of China's major drug exporters. The company is MaMaCF Import and Export, based in the city of Qingdao, a busy port in eastern China's Shandong province. It is there where the Olympic sailing regatta will take place this summer. While it is illegal for the company to export on "a large scale," its sales director, Sun Peng-Su, revealed: "We are allowed to export samples of reasonable quantities to Britain or the U.S. by courier. We describe them, correctly, as healthcare products. But we have had no problem with British Customs." The HGH hormone is a controlled drug in Britain and its import is restricted—even though Sun Peng-Su claimed the company has "a busy trade" with the United States and Britain. He said that "client confidentiality" would not allow him to name who MaMaCF exports to, but his company's sales brochure prices each vial of HGH at 140 yuan (£9.90). Each vial contains sufficient product to significantly increase muscle growth, swiftly burn off body fat and speed up the healing of injuries. "Not just athletes, but sports men and women in all fields can use it. But it is not our company's responsibility to track what happens to the HGH once it has reached its purchaser. It is purely the responsibility of the purchaser how it is used and by whom," he added. MI6 chemists who have tested the HGH hormone say it is of a good quality. "With the Olympic Games coming close, there is now a definite increase in the illicit traffic of hormones and steroids from China," said an intelligence source. Sir Matthew Pinsent, Britain's four-times Olympic rowing gold medallist, warned that present tests for the drug "detect it only up to one day after injection. To date the test, which has been in use since 2004, has caught no one in the UK." And Andy Parkinson of the UK Sports drug-free watchdog, added: "It would be naïve to believe that British athletes are different from other athletes. A few might take this shortcut to success, particularly with the pressure of the 2012 London Olympics and the chance to compete before their own fans." Meantime in the gulags of China, for the guinea pigs on whom the drugs were tested their only rewards are ruined bodies which have been misused. Gordon Thomas is the author of the newly published Secrets & Lies: A History of CIA Mind Control and Germ Warfare (Octavo Editions, USA) and the forthcoming Inside British Intelligence (JR Books, UK). Copyright G-2 Bulletin, Washington D.C., USA, and Gordon Thomas.
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