HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE RESEARCH & NEWS

Performance Enhancing Drugs Change the Way We Think about Sports

Why the United States will never beat PEDs in Professional Sports

Drugs like HGH, Testosterone, and other Androgens have had an incredible impact upon professional sports. Although it may be honorable to fight the good fight in regard to keeping Performance Enhancing Drugs out of sports, we may be better off just giving up on this insurmountable task.

Performance Enhancing Drug Use at All Time High

Performance Enhancing Drugs are becoming so ubiquitous in some sports, it seems futile to attempt to stem the use of these supplements. In addition to this, many options, like Human Growth Hormone or IGF-1 Injections, are completely undetectable if athletes have even the slightest modicum of sense.

In the sense of this utter futility, why not just give in and let the athletes do whatever they feel that they need to do to be the best? In sports like track and cycling, the use of HGH and other drugs is so endemic that there is likely no hope of ever completely getting them out of the sport.

PED Abusers Incredibly Difficult to Detect

Although this is highly controversial, there is no reason to get upset about the decline in the purity of modern athletics. Instead, we should reconsider what we value within the athletic field. There is absolutely no way to catch all athletes that choose to abuse performance enhancers. The science of physiological enhancement is growing too fast, and those that choose to evade the rules will always remain miles ahead of those attempting to enforce the rules. It's just the nature of the cat-and-mouse game being played.

Stricter Rules May Be Dangerous for Players

The more rules that get created prohibiting players from attempting methods of Performance Enhancement that are relatively safe and well-understood and researched, the more likely that athletes will attempt to turn to other forms of physical enhancement that may not be so safe. The evolution of Performance Enhancement is a literal arms race which is both utterly futile to combat and may actually do much more harm than good in the long run.

Government Regulation Has Done Nothing to Stem Steroid Use

Government intervention in athletics has not stemmed the tide of Performance Enhancing Drug use, and may have actually expanded the use of these drugs by inadvertently providing free advertising and also driving the sale of these drugs underground. Driving these drugs underground not only makes it more difficult to monitor and study the use of these pharmaceuticals, but it also put athletes at greater risk, because the drugs that they seek are no longer guaranteed safe and effective in the same way.

The further underground the Performance Enhancement Drug trade is driven, the more likely that unscrupulous individuals can take advantage of these athletes that are simply trying to keep up with other competitors that have easier and more trusted access to such underground methods of acquiring these drugs.

Another reason that Performance Enhancing Drug use will never be eradicated is because almost every Players' Agreement requires players be given advanced notice prior to all drug testing. This gives players more than enough time to clear their systems and pass a drug test.

Steroid Use Progressively Becoming Less Controversial

It has been over a decade since Marion Jones had her gold medals stripped after the Sydney Olympics. It has been 25 years since Ben Johnson had his medals stripped after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It has been over a decade since Mark McGuire quit baseball amid concerns regarding suspicion of PED use. Every time someone gets caught cheating in this way, the impact is less and less severe.

Look at the recent deal with Lance Armstrong. Even though the punishment within the sport was severe: He had all of his Tour de France titles stripped and he lost the majority of his endorsements, the reaction among the public has been incredibly tepid. Pretty much everyone already knew that he was utilizing these drugs for his performance.

They understood that almost all others at his level had at least dabbled in these drugs. Although there will always be some people who feel betrayed, the vast majority of common people look at the Lance Armstrong case and shrugged their shoulders.

Steroids Saved Baseball

Although in the early 2000s, people across America were incensed by the use of HGH and other Performance Enhancing Drugs by professional baseball players, the vast majority of players implicated in this era of scandal have moved on relatively unscathed. Mark McGuire, for example, still has a career in Major League Baseball in spite of his use of PEDs, and is currently on the staff of the Los Angeles Dodgers, acting as their batting coach.

Although so many were so upset at the time of the Baseball PED scandal, one thing has become exceedingly clear in the years that have passed. The Steroid Era of Baseball played an instrumental role in restoring the sport to national prominence after the MLB strikes of the mid-1990s.

Steroids and Performance Enhancing Drugs are the primary reason that baseball became popular again. Without Steroids, baseball might be in the similar boat as the NHL, floundering for national prominence outside of a few specific markets.

Human Growth Hormone Injections Vs. Releasers

In addition to HGH itself, compounds known as Human Growth Hormone Releasers are beginning to be experimented with and used with greater frequency. HGH Releasers are Amino Acid molecules that have been shown to have the capacity to increase Human Growth Hormone production.

These HGH Releasers are very difficult to detect, but they also may be associated with an increased risk of side-effects. This is because Growth Hormone Releasers have mutually have the ability to increase internal HGH Secretion while also having secondary effects throughout the body.

These HGH Releasers are not regulated as strictly as HGH, and although they may actually present a higher risk than Growth Hormone itself, they can be used with significantly less risk than Human Growth Hormone.

Drug Testing Dilutes the Athletic Talent Pool

Why not just let the players utilize Bio-Identical HGH or other Performance Enhancing Drugs? By allowing athletes to utilize these drugs as tools, we may actually be protecting the long term health of many of these players by allowing them to utilize drugs that we have extensively vetted and researched, rather than forcing them to turn to experimental Performance Enhancing Drugs that do more harm than good.

Athletic commissioners also admit that Performance Enhancing Drugs may be here to stay. A representative of United States Track and Field named Fred Finke explains that there have been a number of situations where competitive runners would actively drop out of competitions in which it was sprung that they would be subject to drug testing.

Other competitors would would come up with excuses, claiming that they experienced injuries which prevent them from competing, so that they could save face and credibility while also utilizing Performance Enhancing Drugs. Finke recognizes that it is completely impossible to uncover all, or even an appreciable number of athletes that choose to abuse these drugs.

Promote Full Disclosure: Reward Clean Players

In an ideal world, perhaps we would prevent athletes from utilizing these Performance Enhancing Drugs, but, let's be realistic. This new era of PED use is here to stay and there is nothing that we can likely do about it. Why not let players choose to utilize these drugs in exchange for full disclosure? Let the fans clearly see the reality of the sport. Let them choose the players they truly respect without the lingering fear that their heroes may be anything but.

Changing the American stance regarding Performance Enhancing Drugs will also save the United States Government millions upon millions of dollars while also freeing up valuable hours and time for our representatives to discuss more pressing and vital national concerns.

If you allow these athletes to utilize Performance Enhancing Drugs, you also open up an incredible avenue of scientific research. By allowing researchers to study these athletes, you could truly and clearly see the effects of PED use among the most exceptionally healthy people on the planet. This data could be invaluable in expanding the body of research and discovering exactly who may benefit the most from various medical treatments.

It's all about honesty and accountability. Let the fans be the ones to decide. Let the athletes do what they deem necessary to be the best. By changing the way that we conceptualize Performance Enhancing Drugs, we can come to a greater sense of balance which both saves money and preserves the integrity of athletics, while also freeing up a large amount of money for both Law Enforcement Agencies and the Federal Government.

Players Should Be the Judge of Their Health

In the end, athletes are stewards of their own health and well-being, and they should be allowed to be responsible for such. Although many treatments like Human Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy have not been verified to be safe for use among patients that don't display symptoms of HGH Deficiency, professional athletes have the right to decide whether the risks are worth the rewards when they utilize Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Also, they have access to some of the best Health Insurance in the world, and they are forced to keep themselves in impeccable shape. For these people, more than almost anyone else in the world, the potential benefits far exceed the costs in the majority of cases.

Highlighting Clean Players Lets us Truly Reward Good Role Models

By changing the way we conduct ourselves on the athletic stage, we will actually be able to highlight those that try to do things the right way, the clean way. Even though they might not be the best in the world (and they likely often still will), we can put a spotlight on these paragons of virtue in a way that we have never been able to do before.

Buying HGH from Mexico is Illegal

Operation Raw Deal

Operation Raw Deal was the biggest and most elaborate illicit Hormone Supplement Sting ever conducted by American Law Enforcement. Operation Raw Deal was the culmination of years of research and undercover police work leading to more than fifty arrests across the United States. In the final series of drug busts, DEA agents targeted twenty six illegal Steroid production facilities and their operators across the United States.

Just in that one week's bust, over three hundred pounds of illegal Steroids were confiscated. The Drug Enforcement Administration also obtained data on thirty seven Chinese facilities that manufactured and distributed the raw ingredients used to create Steroid Capsules and Injections. Although the main goal of Operation Raw deal was to bust illicit Testosterone distributors, other drugs were also targeted as well, among those being Insulin-like Growth Factor One (IGF-1) and Human Growth Hormone.

American law enforcement officials spent eighteen months quietly accumulating evidence and data about these illegal Steroid operations across America. Over the eighteen month span in which Operation Raw Deal was active, 124 criminals were apprehended in twenty seven different states. These raids ultimately led to the closure of 56 underground laboratories. In addition to the 124 arrests made, 143 federal search warrants were served. Where the arrests generally occurred may surprise you. Most of the culprits were nabbed in quiet, affluent suburban housing developments.

Operation Raw Deal led to the breakdown of more than one hundred locations associated with the manufacture or distribution of illegal hormone supplements. Among the chemicals confiscated from these locations were counterfeit supplements, illegally obtained prescription medicines, and chemical precursors designed to be converted into hormones. These various ingredients come from some thirty black market Chinese drug manufacturers.

Illegal Steroids and Pro Athletes

In the Operation Raw Deal case, hundreds of thousands of electronic communications were intercepted. To this date, there have been no professional or Olympic athletes who were arrested as a result of this sting operation. The full scope of the operation was huge, and there is no state in the country that was not impacted at least on some level by this Steroid bust.

Seizures related to Operation Raw Deal

The amount of illegal supplements confiscated will astound you. By the end of the operation, over eleven million individual doses of Anabolic Steroids were seized. This only accounts for finished products. In addition to that, 242 kilograms of raw anabolic Steroid ingredients were seized as well. A significant amount of money was confiscated, totaling $6.5 million dollars believed to be directly associated with the sale of illegal supplements. Finally, 27 pill presses, 3 boats, 25 vehicles, and 71 weapons were seized. During the final wave of arrests directly involved in Operation Raw Deal, 61 warrants were served and fifty arrests were made.

Illegal Steroids Sold via Internet Message Boards

One of the primary means by which law enforcement officials located their suspects was via internet message boards which focused on the use of Steroids and other illegal hormone supplements. This is one of the main reasons why individuals that are genuinely interested in hormones as a treatment option for hormonal deficiency are urged to order from reputable dealers. Any purchase you make from a web forum or other unlicensed practitioner could come at a large cost. If arrested, simple possession of Steroids without a prescription carries a $1,000 fine, and the penalties for drug trafficking (i.e. carrying more than would be necessary for personal use) are even steeper.

Illegal Steroids on Facebook and other Websites

Certain Steroid websites are just intended for debate and discussion about Steroids and Steroid use among members who may or may not be using Steroids legally. This ground level strategy for rounding up business has even moved on to more modern forms of social networking such as Myspace and Facebook, and arrests have been made via these sites as well.

Many people on these websites sell anabolic Steroids or other hormones. It's never a good idea to try to buy Steroids or HGH online. It is very easy for a forum member to be an undercover cop looking to make a quick and easy drug bust. There are other websites that are fronts for drug labs that push black market Steroids and hormones.

The FDA and Operation Raw Deal

The Food and Drug Administration fully supports the actions of the Drug Enforcement Agency. FDA officials are incredibly concerned by the prolific distribution of hormone supplements for performance enhancing reasons. They give full and overwhelming approval to the DEA's desire to root out and arrest illegal Steroid and HGH manufacturers and distributors. They consider these individuals criminals that seek to take advantage of both willing and unwitting customers.

Law enforcement officials recognize that many of these groups prey on an audience of teenagers and young adults who don't recognize the ultimate possibility of danger that these unregulated supplements are laced with. These distributors and manufacturers are not naive, however. They recognize the risks that their buyers take when they purchase these illicit products and simply don't care. They are just in it for the bang of the buck, and there is a ton of money up for grabs in this market.

Although the buyers of these illicit hormone supplements may not be aware of the risks involved, one thing is certainly true. These individuals are looking for an unfair advantage over those around them and are willing to go to extreme lengths to obtain that advantage.

United States Postal Service Approves Operation Raw Deal

Multiple American government agencies were involved in Operation Raw Deal, although the DEA was the primary actor in the operation. The United States Postal Service played an active role in the investigation. They were concerned because any illegal use of the Postal Service is an affront to mail carriers across the United States that puts them at risk and puts them in a position where they are unknowingly putting others at risk.

The integrity of the mail system is of the utmost important to USPS officials, and to turn a blind eye to potentially illegal actions perpetrated through the mail service could lead to wide scale outbreaks of postal abuse. The vast records of the USPS were incredibly important to the investigation, because it allowed DEA agents to trace products from buyer to seller, helping them connect the dots of the distribution network.

IRS and Illegal Steroids

IRS officials played a significant role in Operation Raw Deal as well. Where the USPS tracked the packages, the IRS helped the DEA by tracking the money as it passed from buyer to seller. The actions of the Internal Revenue Service were vital in tracking down the perpetrators and bringing them to justice.

How Does Law Enforcement Bust Illegal Steroids?

In totality, Operation Raw Deal followed a four-pronged approach in order to accomplish its goals. DEA officials targeted four primary groups. The first group that they targeted was suppliers and distributors of Steroid and Steroid ingredients originating from Chinese laboratories. These groups marketed and sold illegal hormone ingredients to individuals and companies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The second group targeted was domestic United States black market Steroid Labs. These companies and individuals took the ingredients they received from Chinese manufacturers and converted them into a usable product.

The third group that DEA agents targeted were companies in the United States that sold Steroid manufacturing kits or distributed information to dealers on how to take the Steroid ingredients and convert them into a usable product.

The final group targeted was Internet message boards which were a nesting ground for all sorts of individuals related to the black market manufacture, sale, and distribution of illicit hormone supplements. These internet forums are websites where individuals trade information about Steroids and supplements and regularly make backroom deals with one another to sell and distribute illicit hormones.

These communities are filled with like-minded individuals who share a common love for anabolic Steroids, and to undercover agents, this offered countless opportunities to attain fresh leads. Many of the black market HGH laboratories responsible for the distribution of these illicit hormone supplements advertised on these forums and message boards as well.

How Steroid Forums Push HGH and Steroids

Through Operation Raw Deal, the extent to which international distributors of raw Steroid ingredients interacted with their clients was made apparent. They used these forums as a teaching tool. They worked with fledgling domestic operators, coaching them with hints and tips about how to optimize their drug manufacture.

Via these websites, ingredient distributors and amateur drug manufacturers used state of the art encrypting technologies in attempts to make their sales completely anonymous. One major mistake that these websites made was that they believed that they were out of the sight of law enforcement officials. They expressed great hubris when discussing these officials, believing themselves to be impervious to infiltration.

Resourceful government agents proved their confident notions unfounded, however. It was also found that illicit drug distributors also used forums such as these as a means to market and sell other dangerous and illicit drugs, such as GHB, Pseudoephedrine, Fentanyl, and Ketamine.

Operation Meat Grinder

The original operation began as a result of a 2005 sting operation which found that 8 Mexican drug manufacturers were responsible for the distribution of about eighty percent of the Black Market Anabolic Steroids sold in the United States. In addition to these 8 Mexican laboratories, many Chinese pharmaceutical factories were also discovered to be pumping raw ingredients to Mexico by sea and by air.

The bust of these Mexican Steroid laboratories by United States law enforcement officials was dubbed Operation Meat Grinder. The goal of Operation Meant Grinder was to shut down every Black Market Anabolic Steroid Drug Manufacturing Laboratory in Mexico. It was widely believed that if they accomplished this goal, it would put a major dent in the distributed supply of Black Market Anabolic Steroids entering the United States on a daily basis.

The Steroids sold by these Mexican companies for the most part were Animal Steroids which were intended for livestock use. The two main counts in which the United States arrested individuals affiliated with this drug trafficking ring was with counts of conspiracy to launder money obtained by illicit acts and conspiracy to distribute anabolic Steroids.

Dr. Alberto Saltiel-Cohen: Veterinary Steroid Kingpin

In Operation Meat Grinder, Drug Enforcement Agency officials started a website named bio-power-meds.com, pretending to be a link between Mexican Drug manufacturers and American drug buyers. This website netted numerous leads both with Illicit Steroid Buyers and Sellers on both sides of the border. The two websites which produced the most significant leads were two sites mexicanSteroidsales.com and anabolicsclub.com.

With some investigation, officers discovered that a veterinarian named Alberto Saltiel-Cohen was responsible for the distribution of Anabolic Steroids sold on these two websites. The companies through which he manufactured and distributed Anabolic Steroids were known as Quality Vet, Denkall, and Animal Power. Undercover DEA agents negotiated sales and ordered them to be sent to a post office box. Through this arrangement, DEA officials were able to track or seize some 360,000 doses of illegal Steroids. Drug Enforcement Agents tracked these individual transactions in order to gain information needed to make arrests.

Drug Enforcement Agents used smart phones to email their suspects back and forth and arrange sales. Officers quickly discovered that these individuals were not who you would stereotypically imagine to be illegal drug dealers. They were high-end professionals and spoke like businessmen rather than street thugs. This was a very organized industry. Eventually, Drug Enforcement Agents were able to make contact with Saltiel-Cohen himself, and were able to locate him and arrest him.

The Mexican Media dubbed him the Narco Vet as a result of his arrest and conviction, and due to this major bust, the flow of Mexican Anabolic Steroids into the United States was in large part shut down. Drug officials found that most of the websites that were selling illegal Steroids to users in the United States either stopped production altogether or greatly scaled back their distribution.

Steroid buyers felt the pinch as well, as prices for Illegal Testosterone skyrocketed and users found it far more difficult to acquire. DEA officials had a list of more than two thousands names of buyers and distributors of Black Market Testosterone directly resulting from this investigation.

The Implications of Operation Meat Grinder

Even though Operation Meat Grinder was found to be a great success by American Law Enforcement Officials, it does seem to have created a power vacuum that other drug sellers in Mexico are beginning to fill, and the drug trade slowly began to increase again in the years after Operation Meat Grinder. One major issue is that Black Market Steroid Manufacturers started to become more prevalent within the United States and among Southeast Asian countries, in addition to the Mexican Drug manufacturers which were beginning to reincorporate.

Another major issue that resulted from this landmark bust was that the Steroids and Steroid Ingredients that were entering Mexico and the United States were much more likely to be poor quality than they once were, and one of the biggest arguments by American representatives who believe in Steroid Legalization is that the further Black Market Anabolic Steroids are driven underground, the more dangers and issues will prevail on the quality control side of things. The Steroids being sold will become more likely to be tainted and dangerous than they once were.

Back to Operation Raw Deal

Operation Raw Deal is clearly a Drug Enforcement Operation that grew out of the intel acquired through Operation Meat Grinder. With the proliferation of illegal drug manufacturers in America, it was becoming more and more important to learn more about where exactly these raw ingredients were coming from. Drug enforcement officials from across the globe participated in Operation Raw Deal.

The highest levels of cooperation were from officials in Thailand, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and Mexico. Agents in these countries created false companies in order to obtain Raw Steroid Ingredients. In addition to that, international agents sought information and products from companies that sold Steroid manufacturing kits as well. These Steroid manufacturing kits are the tools which can turn a simple drug trafficker into an illegal drug producer.

DEA Officials recognized one thing quickly: In the International Anabolic Steroid Trade, unlike in Operation Meat Grinder, there was no Anabolic Drug ring leader. To fight the international distribution of Illegal Steroids, Drug enforcement officials had to attack on all fronts. All of the black market manufacturers were interconnected, but there was no singular entity that had complete control over the international enterprise.

Kitchen Sink Testosterone Supplements

One of the raids made in Operation Raw Deal was in Westbury New York. Drug Enforcement Officials made a raid on the residence of a thirty-eight year old man who they had reason to believe was taking part in the sale and distribution of Illegal Anabolic Steroids. In his garage, they found more than eight hundred thousand Steroid pills. His suburban home had also been recently renovated, filled with expensive brand new televisions in every room. The Anabolic Steroid trade was obviously incredibly lucrative.

A black market laboratory in the Midwest was inundated with such a large amount of Steroid residue that a DEA operative explained that the powder left footprints on the floor as they entered the house. The potential dangers involved in purchasing Black Market Anabolic Steroids should be obvious. There is no measure of quality control and American Black Market Steroid Makers are literally working out of their garages and basements. Imagine the conditions that illegal foreign manufacturers are working under if this is what's going on in our own borders.

One of the major problems in the modern Black Market Steroid Industry is that there are a lot of oblivious teenagers and even young adults who go on the internet and see the deals offered by these counterfeit drug distributors and think that they are getting an out of this world deal when they are actually getting a faulty product. A lot of times these Homemade Steroid Solutions and Pills are made in people's bath tubs and sinks. There's no way to ensure that the product received is safe or even actually Steroids.

Perhaps the most tragic story in Operation Raw deal also occurred in New York. One of the suspects who was raided and served a warrant for money laundering and conspiracy committed suicide before trial. Drug Enforcement Officials say that this man had more Anabolic Steroid Ingredients on hand than any but one other person who was arrested. Even though this man's death is sad and unfortunate, it serves to show the incredibly high consequences of the Illegal Steroid Trade.

Executive Level Drug Trafficking

In Rhode Island, a Chinese company and its CEO were indicted for illegally importing Human Growth Hormone Supplements into the United States. Even though China is sometimes wary of working openly with the United States on criminal stings and prosecutions, they readily stepped up to assist Drug Enforcement Agency officials.

The Chinese company Genescience Pharmaceutical and its presiding executive officer, Lei Jin, were indicted for the conspiracy to import and sell smuggled goods and money laundering. The drugs distributed by Genescience were of the Chinese brand Jinotropin. Jinotropin is a Chinese form of Bio-Identical Human Growth Hormone. The company used both email and the Internet to distribute their wares.

It should be noted that Jinotropin and Genotropin are two distinct brands. Jinotropin is not approved for sale in the United States and is not proven safe for use by United States Officials. Genotropin is owned and distributed by the reputable American pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It has been proven to be of the utmost quality and has been proven effective for treatment by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Chinese Government and Illegal Anabolic Steroid Distribution

As the 2008 Olympics approached, the International Olympic Committee was incredibly concerned about the prevalence of Performance Enhancing Drugs and their use in China. It has already been shown that there is a lack of stability among Chinese food and drug administrators, and it is unclear how much control the Chinese have over their own pharmaceutical industry.

In the early 2000's, scandal broke within the Chinese food and drug regulatory commission. The problems were so widespread and severe that the administration's top executive was executed for his role in the misdeeds. It is estimated by the World Anti-Doping Administration that China is responsible for as much as eighty percent of the Black Market HGH available in the world today. Their stake in the market is $480 million dollars across the world. The market of the entire globe is only $600 million.

Although China appeared to be forthcoming with information regarding the lucrative Black Market Hormone Industry in their country, it is unclear the extent to which the country is dedicated to the actual task of cleaning up their criminal mess. Chinese officials presented DEA Agents data on ten Black Market Laboratories operating within their borders. In the years following Operation Raw Deal, only one of those ten labs were put out of business.

The Chinese government has put forth many proposals for reform, from reducing export quotas to constrict the international distribution of Human Growth Hormone and Steroids, to banning the sale of Anabolic Steroids to pharmacies in the Beijing region. In spite of that, it is clear that Chinese officials are dragging their heels in their efforts to crack down on illegal hormone supplements within their country. Drug Enforcement Agency officials are still somewhat optimistic and feel that changes will begin to take root in time.

Illegal Steroids: Cheap, yet Dangerous

The Drug Enforcement Agency is incredibly fervent in their desire to stop the incoming flood of Chinese Steroids and Human Growth Hormone imported into the United States every day. These illicit pharmaceuticals are not approved for sale in any way, shape, or form in the United States. There is an incredible amount of interest in these Black Market Hormones because they sell for around one third of the cost of Food and Drug Administration approved brands of these drugs.

The process of ensuring the safety and effectiveness of FDA-Approved Hormone Therapies is necessary to ensure that all legal users of these products are getting what they pay for without putting themselves at an unknown or unnecessary risk.

Outside Operation Raw Deal

In another Human Growth Hormone Probe stemming from Albany, New York, a number of pharmacists and doctors have been accused of filling out bogus HGH prescriptions for patients who showed no medical need for the hormone. The name of the pharmacy that spearheaded this illicit operation is named Signature of Orlando. This prescription drug bust revealed a number of American professional athletic figures that were using Human Growth Hormone for Performance Enhancing Purposes.

New England Patriot Rodney Harrison and Saint Louis Cardinal Richard Ankiel were among those figures implicated by this bust. Both have come clean with the media and admitted that they obtained Prescription Human Growth Hormone from this network. It should be noted that Richard Ankiel believes that his HGH Prescription was written to treat a legitimate medical condition. He used Human Growth Hormone Therapy as a means to treat a 2004 elbow surgery.

It's Not Over Yet

It should be noted that law enforcement officials will continue to use information gathered as a result of Operation Raw Deal as a means to trace, monitor, and apprehend those associated with the Illicit Hormone Distribution chain. Operation Raw Deal and Operation Meat Grinder focused primarily on notorious distributors rather than small time criminals and end users. There are real and serious risks when using or ordering Black Market Steroids, Human Growth hormone, or any other supplement not approved for use in the United States.

Only use Hormone Supplements with a prescription, and only make purchases from reputable dealers. As we age, the need for Human Growth Hormone and Testosterone is a real need. Although Hormone Supplementation for Performance Enhancement is very illegal in the United States, using Bio-identical Hormones as a means to rectify a legitimate Hormone Deficiency is perfectly legal and for a large swath of Americans is even recommended.

Extra Details Regarding Individual Cases

California - Southern District

The San Diego Federal Grand Jury implicated fourteen individuals through seven separate indictments.

Charges: Conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to distribute anabolic Steroids, conspiracy to import anabolic Steroids. Also, money, goods, and contraband were seized. The following individuals are believed to have bought raw Steroid ingredients from foreign distributors in China and elsewhere in order to constitute illegal Steroid supplements for sale within the United States:

Defendants:

John Russo, Robert Souders, Jeffrey Mitchell, Charles Lupico, Israel Sanchez, Natasha Bensulong, Joshua Phillips, Otis Armour, Michael Guthrie, Timothy Smith, Felix Parache, Adam Hullander, Ray Ross, and Goran Crnila

New York - Southern District

A Federal Grand Jury representing Southern New York implicated five people with the conspiracy to distribute anabolic Steroids. Three of these five individuals were also accused of money laundering. This quintet of defendants is believed to have owned and operated two facilities which they used to market and sell Black Market Anabolic Steroids.

These two companies were called Strong Island Underground and Bodiez by Design. The group also is believed to have utilized the Internet as a means to sell and distribute their illegal wares. They utilized the United States Postal Service to distribute their Steroids and also attempted to use highly secure means of payment in an attempt to make the pay transaction anonymous.

A raid of Strong Island Underground netted an astounding 1.1 million doses of Anabolic Steroids in addition to other drugs used in conjunction with those Steroids. The Illegal Supplements were in both pill and liquid form. A large number of pieces of Steroid paraphernalia were also confiscated.

A short time after these original warrants were served, another four individuals were arrested in conjunction with this case, also with warrants undersigned by a judge of the court district of Southern New York. Two of these four individuals are accused of conspiracy to distribute Anabolic Steroids. The first individual was indicted for attempting to sell Powdered Testosterone via the Internet. The second individual was arrested for buying Steroid Supplements from China in order to distribute them within the United States.

The third member of this group was indicted for abetting the other individuals. He utilized a rented storage unit to allow the other two individuals to have a place to stash their drug manufacturing equipment when not in use. A fourth person was arrested on three different counts: using the United Postal Service to distribute illegal merchandise, selling drug paraphernalia, and providing equipment used for the manufacture of anabolic Steroids. The fourth defendant was the owner and operator of a facility known as Titan Medical Supply. This company was a front operation which the defendant used to sell drug paraphernalia and drug-making equipment to willing buyers.

Central District of Pennsylvania

As a result of Operation Raw Deal, a Pennsylvania Federal Grand Jury released an indictment which charged three people with the conspiracy to possess and distribute anabolic Steroids. The trio worked together on their mission to distribute illegal Steroids over the course of two years from 2005 to 2007. Each of the three face five years of prison and $250,000 in fines if they are found guilty.

At a later date, a United States Attorney representing this same district accused five other people of crimes related to the sale and distribution of illicit drugs. Thee of the five were accused of the conspiracy to possess and distribute Schedule III Ketamine. A fourth person was implicated with the conspiracy to possess and distribute Anabolic Steroids.

Each of these four individuals are on the hook for a five year prison sentence and $250,000 in fines in found guilty. A fifth individual was arrested for intent to distribute cocaine. This individual could go to prison for up to twenty years and face a million dollar fine.

Rhode Island Judicial District

The Rhode Island Federal Grand Jury has implicated the pharmaceutical company Genescience, its Chief Executive Officer Jei Jin, and 3 more individuals with maintaining an international drug smuggling operation through which millions in HGH Supplements were illegally imported into the U.S.A. and various other countries.

The drug smugglers used semi-anonymous email addressed and utilized several websites as a means to distribute the illegal supplements. The United States government has seized around $3.6 million dollars from Chinese bands located in New York directly stemming from this case.

Maryland Judicial District

As a result of Operation Raw Deal, Bradley Blum was indicted in Baltimore for conspiring to illegally sell Black Market HGH. He was also indicted for actually selling the hormone as well. He purchased the Human Growth Hormone from a Chinese distributor and sold it to individuals across the country, including at least one individual in Maryland.

Federal investigators have discovered more than $800,000 in proceeds and property that can be directly traced to the scheme of unlawful distribution. In connection with this case, Allentown, Pennsylvania, resident Anthony Schuler was indicted on the conspiracy to distribute HGH as well as an outright attempt to distribute the drug. He also received his stock from a Chinese manufacturer.

Judicial District of Western Missouri

Four persons have been arrested in connection with the distribution of Illicit Anabolic Steroids in the Judicial District of Western Missouri. Wife and husband April and Bryan Wilson were charged with both the distribution of Steroids and the intent to distribute Steroids. The charges allege that the husband and wife team arranged with Chinese drug manufacturers to Purchase Anabolic Steroid Ingredients, which they would constitute and sell to willing buyers across the United States.

In exchange for these Illegal Anabolic Steroid Ingredients, they wired money directly to their Chinese co-conspirators. In Jackson and Boone County, Missouri, Mr. Wilson created liquid and pill forms of Steroids from the ingredients he received. The couple operated under the company titles Palmco, Pro Pharm Labs, and Pro Pharm.

Two separate individuals were also arrested in this district as a direct result of Operation Raw Deal. Jason Varner and Mikal Schrage were both individually indicted for the intent to sell anabolic Steroids. Schrage is believed to have attempted to traffic five pounds of Steroid Powder and ten liters of Liquid Steroids from Florida to Missouri. On the way, home he was intercepted and arrested by law enforcement. Mr. Varner attempted to buy 188 Steroid Vials in Columbia Missouri. When law enforcement officials searched the man's home they confiscated another 44 vials of the drug.

Connecticut Judicial District

In a legal action related to Operation Raw Deal, the Fraud Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted an operation known as Operation Phony Pharm. This undercover operation focused on the illegal distribution of Human Growth Hormone, Anabolic Steroids, and Prescription Pain Meds via the Internet. Operation Raw Deal and Operation Phony Pharm began as independent enterprises, but the two forces have shared information and worked on many aspects of their individual cases together as their leads became intertwined.

The primary difference between the two operations is that Phony Pharm focused on domestic distributors of Human Growth Hormone and Anabolic Steroids, whereas Operation Raw Deal was primary concerned with the Illegal Importation of Chinese Anabolic Steroids and Anabolic Steroid Ingredients.

In this particular case, four individuals were implicated for conspiring to distribute and sell Anabolic Steroids. It is believed that the individuals bought Raw Steroid Ingredients from a Chinese company and converted the raw ingredients into Injectable and Oral Steroids in a home laboratory. After creating these Phony Anabolic Steroids, they were distributed to various buyers via both the social networking site Myspace.com and the website anabolic-superstore.com.

Also in relation to this investigation, one individual from the state of Florida plead guilty to Steroid distribution. The man admitted to prosecutors that he had utilized his Myspace.com profile to Sell Steroids to individuals who messaged him on the site. He also told prosecutors that he bought two kilograms of Raw Steroid Ingredients from a Chinese supplier as well.

Many athletes credit drugs with improving their performance, but some of them may want to thank their brain instead. Mounting evidence suggests that the boost from human growth hormone (HGH), an increasingly popular doping drug, might be caused by the placebo effect.

In a new double-blind trial funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency, in which neither researchers nor participants knew who was receiving HGH and who was taking a placebo, the researchers asked participants to guess whether or not they were on the real drug. Then they examined the results of the group who guessed that they were getting HGH when, in fact, they had received a placebo. That group improved at four fitness tests measuring strength, endurance, power and sprint capacity. The study participants who guessed correctly that they were taking a placebo showed much less improvement, according to preliminary results presented at the Society for Endocrinology meeting in June. The researchers are currently analyzing the results of the other participants for future publication.

"This finding really shows the power of the mind," said Ken Ho, an endocrinologist at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia, who led the study. "Many athletes are reaping the benefits of the placebo effect, without knowing whether what they're taking is beneficial or not."

And in fact, HGH may not be helpful at all, reveals a recent review published May 20 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Endocrinologist Hau Liu of Stanford University and his colleagues looked at 44 studies and found that although HGH did increase athletes' lean body mass, it did not lead to improvements in athletic performance in double-blind trials.

The implications for athletes are serious, according to Ho. Many athletes take a cocktail of supplements, vitamins and drugs, believing that they are enhancing their game. "But it's really the belief in the mind that improves performance" in most cases, Ho says. "Athletes need to be cautious about ‘snake oil' merchants."