700,000 doses of steroids and illegal medicines seized
By: ThinkSpain , Monday, May 16, 2011
Police have busted what is thought to be the biggest international medicine trafficking ring, seizing 700,000 doses of anabolic steroids, growth hormones and other illegal medicines, and arresting 26 people, inlcuding the manager of a cycling club.
Amongst the drugs seized in the 19 separate property searches carried out today were hundreds of thousands of well-known brands of tablets for erectile dysfunction, more than 10,000 ampoules of growth hormones, anabolic steroids and other doping substances, with a street value of some 3.5 million euros.
The trafficking ring, with outlets in Alicante, Málaga and Madrid, used suppliers in China, India and Turkey, with intermediaries and storage facilities in the UK, Germany and Hungary so as not to arouse suspicion.
The police operation also discovered a laboratory in a lock-up in Elche (Aicante), where a growth hormone bought in bulk from China was manufactured and packaged to be sold on the internet.
One of those arrested is the manager of a cycling club in the Comunidad de Madrid, who was caught allegedly taking delivery of a substantial quantity of EPO, a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production.
The operation began back in July last year when police picked up on a company in the Comunidad Valenciana that was importing and selling large quantities of illegal medicines and transferring large sums of money to Chinese banks.
http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/19596/700000-doses-of-steroids-and-illegal-medicines-seized
