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Top bodybuilders allegedly received steroids from Internet pharmacy
By Joe Mahoney and T.J. Quinn
New York Daily News
(MCT)
It may shock no one to learn that two world champion bodybuilders may have been using steroids or growth hormone, but two giants of that well-muscled world were among the athletes who received drugs in a shady Internet pharmacy operation, sources have told the New York Daily News.
Eight-time Mr. Universe Ronnie Coleman, a former BALCO client, and top
Mr. Universe contestant Victor Martinez were among the many clients in an ongoing, multistate investigation that led to the raids on several pharmacies in Florida this week, a source said. But like the other athletes whose names have been leaked, Coleman and Martinez are not targets.
"We know that thousands of people in New York alone have been getting steroids this way over the Internet," said a law enforcement official involved in the investigation. "But you have got to go after the source, and that is what we are doing."
Also Thursday, baseball officials said they want to talk to Albany County District Attorney David Soares about Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr.'s alleged links to a pharmacy in Mobile, Ala., that is part of the investigation.
However, whether the subject is sources or users, the current investigation keeps overlapping with the more famous BALCO case from the San Francisco area. Coleman, listed among clients on the Web site for BALCO founder Victor Conte's nutritional business, shares the record for Mr. Olympia titles with fellow former BALCO client Lee Haney, who worked out with Evander Holyfield, one of the athletes reportedly connected to the newest raids. While both Coleman and Haney have ties to BALCO, neither was ever accused of receiving drugs from the lab.
Returning from Florida Thursday, Soares said as many as 24 people will be rounded up in the days ahead. Rather than finding a hero's welcome, however, Soares was immediately hit with criticism from local law enforcement officials over his tactics, and with complaints from local reporters that he had favored the Albany Times-Union with a scoop when the raids were carried out Tuesday.
In the days since the highly publicized raids and arrests of pharmacists, Albany cops have challenged Soares' claims that steroid abuse is a growing problem in upstate communities, and thus justified his decision to lead raids in Florida. Soares fired back Thursday, saying his police critics have "never focused on anything other than the guy they can pick up and make $500 of overtime on," a strategy he said has doomed the war on drugs.
"If every member of law enforcement in Albany County was focused on actually putting away criminals instead of arguing with each other and engaging in turf battles, we would have a reduction in the crime rate of about 50 percent," Soares said.
A source with knowledge of the probe said another one of the steroid customers is a supervisor with the Albany Police Department's narcotics squad. Albany cops have been among Soares' most vocal critics.
With Soares and about 2,000 pounds of confiscated documents arriving in Albany Thursday, sources said other pharmacies are soon to be raided, and several employees of Florida pharmacies are expected to surrender to authorities in Albany on Monday. But while Soares defended his decision to go after suppliers and not users, as is the case with most drug prosecutions, attention will remain on the documents and the names they may contain.
"You won't find another Barry Bonds, but there are some names people will know," a source close to the investigation said. But only if the documents are unsealed or if the names are leaked.
The four people arrested Tuesday at Signature Compounding Pharmacy in Orlando - Stan and Naomi Loomis, Michael Loomis and Kirk Calvert - waived extradition Thursday and must surrender themselves in Albany by Thursday.
So far, the names of Holyfield - the former heavyweight boxing champion - Matthews, ex-major league pitcher Jason Grimsley and retired slugger Jose Canseco reportedly have been connected to Applied Pharmacy Services in Mobile.
Mobile-based DEA agents searched Applied in August with a federal warrant, and the Albany Times-Union reported Thursday that two Applied owners had been indicted by an Albany County grand jury. But Arthur Madden, an attorney for the pharmacy's owners, said he had not been told his clients are targets in the investigation or have been indicted.
"I know nothing about a New York State proceeding," he said. "I read this stuff with horrid fascination."
Madden said he doesn't know why his clients, Jason and Sam Kelley, would be targets.
"Applied is not an Internet pharmacy where you go online and fill out a form and some doctor writes a prescription," he said. "It's a real pharmacy, it's a brick and mortar place, it's regulated by the FDA and DEA. It's a licensed pharmacy that dispenses prescriptions written by real doctors."
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