'Mother lode' seized from Brooklyn pharmacy
The same Albany narcotics agents who led raids on Florida pharmacies and "anti-aging" clinics in February hit a mom-and-pop Brooklyn pharmacy yesterday - seizing what one official described as a "mother lode" of steroids and growth hormone.
Investigators from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement surprised the owners of Lowen's Compounding Pharmacy with a sudden inspection, carrying off about $200,000 worth of performance-enhancing drugs, almost all of which had been shipped from China, Albany County Assistant District Attorney Chris Baynes told the Daily News.
Baynes said investigators took stacks of client papers, and he expects to find the names of professional athletes, as agents have in prior pharmacy raids.
"Reason holds that there would be, based on prior experience," he said.
Baynes, who works for Albany County District Attorney David Soares, was part of the team that raided Signature Pharmacy in Orlando in February, along with several "anti-aging" clinics.
Soares has indicted 21 people in a multistate scheme to provide drugs over the Internet. Seven suspects have pleaded guilty already.
According to Baynes, his office learned about Lowen's because "their name had come up frequently during the Signature Pharmacy investigation."
Once Signature was raided, Baynes said, Lowen's stepped in and began filling prescriptions for one of the anti-aging centers Signature had supplied.
No arrests were made at Lowen's yesterday, but Baynes said his office continues to investigate.
When agents arrived yesterday at Lowen's in Bay Ridge, an old-fashioned family pharmacy with a sign out front that says, "Welcome back DC37 members," there was "a busy fax machine with drug orders from around the country coming into it and a large stockpile of Chinese steroids," Baynes said.
Employees at the pharmacy refused to speak to a reporter. Other than the three investigators carrying boxes out the front door, it was business as usual.
Baynes said investigators were not calling the action a raid, and that no search warrant was served. Because Lowen's is a regulated pharmacy, agents "are allowed to do inspections, either randomly or based on some sort of belief that there's irregularities going on," Baynes said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/05/10/2007-05-10_200g_worth_of_steroids_found.html
