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Man Arrested At SFO in Steroids Case
14,000 pills reportedly taped to his body

Angelica Pence, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, November 10, 2000

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Police arrested a traveler at San Francisco International Airport after allegedly finding more than 14,000 steroid pills taped to his body Wednesday, a type of crime U.S. Customs officers say is on the rise.

Timothy Horton, 30, flew in from Bangkok on a Korean Air flight around 10 a.m. when airport police noticed he was "exhibiting suspicious behavior," according to Henry Friedlander, public information officer with the San Francisco Police Department's airport bureau.

While making his way through Customs, Horton was taken aside and pat searched. Officers found one plastic bag filled with steroids taped to the lining of his coat. Two other bags were found taped to his legs and a third to his groin, Friedlander said.

At $5 to $10 per dose, the 14,180 confiscated pink and white pills have an estimated street value of more than $99,000, according to Friedlander.

U.S. Customs Service inspectors routinely intercept a laundry list of drugs, including steroids, hormones, aphrodisiacs, impotence medications, anti-cancer pills, painkillers and tranquilizers sent from Korea, Thailand, China, Mexico and Switzerland, among other nations.

Seizures of imported drugs included thousands of parcels containing more than a million pills, according to the Washington, D.C., office of the Customs Service.

Nationwide, an estimated 1.4 million doses of steroids were confiscated last year by customs inspectors. This year, that number has risen to 2.6 million.

At SFO alone, seven seizures totaling 952 doses of steroids were confiscated in fiscal year 1999. This fiscal year, 19 seizures have netted 824,000 doses, according to federal customs records.

Since August, customs officials have seized 20,307 tablets in four separate seizures involving incoming international passengers, according to Mike Fleming, public information officer for the Customs Service's California office in Los Angeles.

Customs and law enforcement officials admit that the shipments impounded at airports likely make up a fraction of what U.S. consumers are illegally purchasing.

"The problem is that people can sometimes come through (customs inspections) without getting detected," Friedlander said. "You can't catch everyone."

Horton was booked into the San Mateo County Jail in Redwood City on two charges of transporting a controlled substance and one charge of possessing a controlled substance with intent to sell, according to a spokeswoman for the San Mateo County district attorney's office.

The packages and their contents, meanwhile, were sent to the San Mateo County crime lab near Belmont for analysis.

Horton, who gave a Beaverton, Ore., home address, told airport officials that he was bringing in the steroids for personal use.

As a rule, the Customs Service refrains from taking action on consumers importing small amounts of prescription drugs -- up to a three-month supply -- for their own use, and the drugs pose no "unreasonable risk" to the user. Importing steroids, however, is illegal.

Bad customs!?!

US Coast Guard does the same thing.

Hhahah ROFLOL..

Maybe Cops should be tested for roids.

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Don't put off to tomorrow what you can do today.

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Jay-T

quote:

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LIFT MORE,BE MORE

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Originally posted by Anabolicum Mister:
So that's why I put on so much weight when I eat his donuts.

All this time I thought it was the coffee?