Chapter[ IX. The Threat Posed By Internet Sales of Steroids and Human Growth
Hormone ]
Section[ A. 1. Drug Dealers’ Use of the Internet to Sell Illegal Performance Enhancing Substances ]
1. Drug Dealers’ Use of the Internet to Sell Illegal Performance Enhancing Substances
On September 24, 2007, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced the
“largest steroid enforcement action in U.S. history,” called Operation Raw Deal, in which law
enforcement officials from several different federal agencies had executed 143 search warrants,
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made 124 arrests and seized 56 illegal steroid labs around the United States. The operation took
place in conjunction with enforcement operations in a number of other countries, including
China.431 Operation Raw Deal followed a successful DEA interdiction of illegal steroid
production in Mexico in 2005, called Operation Gear Grinder, in which similar evidence was
uncovered about how illegal steroids are sold over the internet.432
Massive quantities of steroids were seized in the Operation Raw Deal raids,
including “11.4 million steroid dosage units” and “242 kilograms of raw steroid powder of
Chinese origin.” Agents also seized 27 pill presses from the labs. Agents involved in the raids
reported that many of the steroid labs discovered in the operation were “extremely unsanitary”
with “huge amounts of raw materials being mixed in bathtubs and bathroom sinks” in some
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cases.
Indictments in several of the criminal cases arising from these investigations
describe the basic sales and distribution methods used by the steroid dealers who were caught by
the operation. A number of these dealers advertise on social networking sites; others are listed as
“approved sources” for illegal steroids on bodybuilding websites where users discuss how to get
illegal steroids and human growth hormone, how to self-administer those substances, and how to
avoid detection by law enforcement.434 Some websites also explain how to convert raw steroid
431 Press Release, Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Announces Largest Steroid
Enforcement Action in U.S. History (Sept. 24, 2007); see also Amy Shipley, Agents Arrest 124
in Drug Raids; With Eye on Hosting Olympics, China Cooperates With DEA, Wash. Post,
Sept. 24, 2007, at E1.
432 See Press Release, Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Leads Largest Steroids
Bust in History (Dec. 15, 2005).
433 See Press Release, Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Announces Largest
Steroid Enforcement Action in U.S. History (Sept. 24, 2007).
434 See, e.g., Indictment, United States v. Smith, et al., No. 07 CR 2580 (S.D. Cal.), ¶¶ 45,
15 (d/b/a US Pharmaceuticals); Indictment, United States v. Russo, et al., No. 07 CR 2582
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powder into pills or injectable liquid and sell conversion kits for doing so at home.435
Transactions were arranged through the dealers’ encrypted email addresses to avoid law
enforcement scrutiny.436 Buyers paid for the substances by wire transfer or by mailing cash to
post office boxes.437 The illegal drugs were then sent to the buyers through the mail or using
overnight delivery services.438
Transactions in which dealers obtained the raw steroid powder from overseas
suppliers also frequently were arranged over the internet.439 The drug dealers caught in
Operation Raw Deal obtained raw steroid powder primarily from companies based in China;
(S.D. Cal.), ¶¶ 4-5, 14 (d/b/a American Pharmaceuticals Incorporated); Indictment, United States
v. Hullander, No. 07 CR 2577 (S.D. Cal.), ¶¶ 4-5, 8 (d/b/a Tweak Labs); Indictment,
United States v. Lupico, No. 07 CR 2579 (S.D. Cal.), ¶¶ 4-5, 16 (d/b/a AKA Pharmaceuticals).
435 See Press Release, Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Announces Largest
Steroid Enforcement Action in U.S. History (Sept. 24, 2007), at 2; see also Amy Shipley, Agents
Arrest 124 in Drug Raids; With Eye on Hosting Olympics, China Cooperates With DEA, Wash.
Post, Sept. 24, 2007, at E1.
436 See Indictment, United States v. Russo, et al., No. 07 CR 2582 (S.D. Cal.), ¶¶ 10-11,
16 (d/b/a American Pharmaceuticals Incorporated); Indictment, United States v. Lupico, No. 07
CR 2579 (S.D. Cal.), ¶ 10 (d/b/a AKA Pharmaceuticals).
437 See Indictment, United States v. Smith, et al., No. 07 CR 2580 (S.D. Cal.), ¶ 17 (d/b/a
US Pharmaceuticals); Indictment, United States v. Russo, et al., No. 07 CR 2582 (S.D. Cal.),
¶ 19 (d/b/a American Pharmaceuticals Incorporated); Indictment, United States v. Hullander, No.
07 CR 2577 (S.D. Cal.), ¶ 10 (d/b/a Tweak Labs); Indictment, United States v. Lupico, No. 07
CR 2579 (S.D. Cal.), ¶ 18 (d/b/a AKA Pharmaceuticals); Indictment, United States v. Jin, et al.,
No. 07 CR 121-01ML (D.R.I.), ¶¶ 19, 28-29, 32-34.
438 See Indictment, United States v. Russo, et al., No. 07 CR 2582 (S.D. Cal.), ¶¶ 17-18
(d/b/a American Pharmaceuticals Incorporated); Indictment, United States v. Jin, et al., No. 07
CR 121-01ML (D.R.I.), ¶¶ 26, 30, 35.
439 See Indictment, United States v. Smith, et al., No. 07 CR 2580 (S.D. Cal.), ¶¶ 11-12
(d/b/a US Pharmaceuticals); Indictment, United States v. Hullander, No. 07 CR 2577 (S.D. Cal.),
¶¶ 4-7 (d/b/a Tweak Labs); Indictment, United States v. Lupico, No. 07 CR 2579 (S.D. Cal.),
¶¶ 12-15 (d/b/a AKA Pharmaceuticals); Indictment, United States v. Jin, et al., No. 07 CR 12101ML
(D.R.I.), ¶¶ 17-18. See also David Barboza and Duff Wilson, Complaint Offers Window
on Chinese Drug Ring, N.Y. Times, Sept. 28, 2007, at C1.
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37 Chinese companies were implicated, many of them chemical wholesalers.440 Illicit
production of steroids had shifted to China after the December 2005 raids in Operation Gear
Grinder, as a result of which the DEA successfully shut down eight Mexican veterinary steroid
producers that previously had been responsible for up to 80% of the illicit internet sales of
steroids in the United States.441
Once they obtained the raw steroids in powder form, the dealers converted it into
steroid pills or injectable liquid steroids in their home laboratories. As mentioned, many of the
steroid laboratories raided in Operation Raw Deal were extremely unsanitary. The DEA found
that mislabeling was also common, “both intentional and unintentional. Products [we]re often
misrepresented, and their safety [was] not at all guaranteed.”442
Operation Raw Deal also resulted in the indictment of a number of individuals
involved in illicit internet sales of human growth hormone using a similar business model.
Human growth hormone was advertised for sale on websites, and potential customers contacted
the dealers, using encrypted email addresses that were accessible on those sites. Human growth
hormone was purchased by the dealers from a Chinese pharmaceutical company, GeneScience
Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., which shipped vials of its Jintropin brand of HGH from China to
post office boxes maintained by the dealers in the United States.443 Dealers then sent the
440 David Barboza and Duff Wilson, Complaint Offers Window on Chinese Drug Ring,
N.Y. Times, Sept. 28, 2007, at C1; see also Maureen Fan and Amy Shipley, Pressure Builds on
China Over Steroids, Wash. Post, Dec, 5, 2007, at A1.
441 Amy Shipley, Agents Arrest 124 in Drug Raids; With Eye on Hosting Olympics,
China Cooperates With DEA, Wash. Post, Sept. 24, 2007, at E1; see Press Release, Drug
Enforcement Administration, DEA Leads Largest Steroids Bust in History (Dec. 15, 2005).
442 Press Release, Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Announces Largest Steroid
Enforcement Action in U.S. History (Sept. 24, 2007).
443 See Indictment, United States v. Jin, et al., No. 07 CR 121-01ML (D.R.I.); see also
David Barboza and Duff Wilson, Complaint Offers Window on Chinese Drug Ring, N.Y. Times,
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products to their customers. There was no pretense of obtaining physicians’ prescriptions for the
human growth hormone – the substance was simply smuggled into the United States and sold
illegally.
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