An international operation coordinated by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and police organisation Europol has resulted in the closure of over 19 underground steroid manufacturing laboratories. Operation Underground involved police action in 19 countries – Australia, Iceland, Switzerland, the US and 15 EU Member States.

In total, 135,000 steroid dosage units were seized, 636kg of raw steroid powder, 8,200 litres of raw steroid injectable liquid and over $2m in currency and assets. A total of 99 people have been arrested to date. ‘Throughout Operation Underground, Europol worked closely with law enforcement partners in Cyprus, Italy, Belgium and Iceland, receiving actionable intelligence that resulted in many of those investigations’, read a Europol statement. ‘Close cooperation with Iceland in particular resulted in financial investigations that traced back the financial flows to China’.

The DEA also said that the products found in over 30 investigations in 20 US States ‘are commonly obtained via the internet from Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and underground labs’. In Arizona alone, four underground steroid laboratories were uncovered, involving 150,000 doses of steroids, 121 pounds of raw steroid powder, 22 litres of raw steroid injectable liquid and over $300,000 in currency and assets.

Three of the underground laboratories uncovered were based in the UK. ‘A 42 year-old man and a 47 year-old woman arrested in Walsall by West Midlands Police on 9 February and a drug laboratory was dismantled’, read a National Crime Agency statement. ‘Three men, aged 48, 20 and 34, and a 44 year-old woman arrested in St. Aseph, North Wales, by North Wales Police on 20 May. Significant amounts of cash, steroids and associated equipment were seized and a large drug lab was found and dismantled. A 34 year-old man arrested in Manchester by officers from Greater Manchester Police and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency on 29 June. A large quantity of steroids, laboratory equipment and machinery was seized and the laboratory dismantled.’

WADA warned of the dangers of buying illicit products on the internet. ‘Many companies operating illegally both in the United States, China, and elsewhere have no regard for product safety and mislabeling is common – both intentional and unintentional’, read a statement. ‘Products are often misrepresented, and their safety is not at all guaranteed. In addition, federal agents report that many of the underground steroid labs seized are extremely unsanitary, further illustrating the danger in buying these products illegally. For example, recent lab seizures uncovered huge amounts of raw materials being mixed in bathtubs and bathroom sinks.’