Delaware County
DEA Executes Search Warrant
Oct 27, 2005, 05:07 PM
An international steroid drug ring is being broken up right here in central Ohio.
The Drug Enforcement Administration searched a house Thursday involving a man they call a "key player."
The DEA believes the man is part of an international drug ring where the chemicals are being brought in from Thailand to central Ohio for distribution.
While no one has been charged after Thursday's search, the Drug Enforcement Administration says it's the biggest steroid drug organization they've worked on in the past couple of years.
It is one they say they learned about because the suspect posed as a DEA human resources agent.
In a quiet suburb of Delaware County, DEA agents searched the home of a man they suspect of dealing steroids.
The DEA claims the man posed as a federal drug agent.
"He had business cards printed up and he was purporting himself [that] what he was doing was with the full knowledge and acceptance of the Drug Enforcement Administration," says DEA Asst. Spc. Agent in Charge Tony Marotta.
Agents say the suspect went so far as to set up a fake voicemail, which says, "Hi, you've reached the voice mail of… with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Files and Background Investigation Department."
Agents claim he's responsible for sending tens of thousands of doses of steroids and gallons of GBL into the bodybuilding community.
Steroids speed up the heart rate. GBL is a form of the date rape drug that counteracts the effects of steroids, letting a user sleep.
The agency wants to break up this ring before anyone more susceptible gets a hold of it.
Marotta says, "You don't want it to get into the hands of those high school and in college."
10TV contacted the suspect. He declined to speak on camera, but did say he is a DEA agent who works in human resources.
The DEA in central Ohio continues to say he does not work for the administration.
----------------------------
That's all the info I could find. I'll look around some more.