Breaking News: Agents Arrest 124 in Drug Raids

With the maximum attention that steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, here is another HUGE story that I will closely follow. There was a big drug bust today and over 120 people we're arrested and detained in the process. Read on, this is going to be on every major news outlet in the next coming days, here's an overview of the breaking news.

Federal agents raided more than four dozen underground drug labs and arrested 124 people in 27 states during an 18-month crackdown on Chinese steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs that reached its culmination in the last four days, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said yesterday.

The operation, which agents described as the largest anti-steroid action by law enforcement ever, involved cooperation among 10 nations and involved raids and arrests in Mexico, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Thailand, U.S. officials said.

Under pressure from Olympic and world anti-doping officials to address China's reputation as the main global supplier of illicit performance-enhancing drugs with the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing just 11 months away, Chinese authorities cooperated with the probe, DEA officials said. The Chinese agreed to accept information packets from U.S. and international law enforcement agencies in the coming weeks to address further the problem within their borders, the officials said.

The action targeted underground labs that peddled steroids, human growth hormone and other drugs to customers through Web sites and message boards. It is not yet known whether high-profile Olympic or professional athletes were clients of any of the labs, DEA spokesman Dan Simmons said.

Officials from major sport anti-doping bodies including the World Anti-Doping Agency and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency assisted throughout, offering expertise and support, Simmons said. WADA Chairman Dick Pound is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday, where he is expected to follow up on issues surrounding the manufacture and supply of steroids and other drugs from China, which he raised during meetings last fall with Chinese Olympic and government officials as among threats to the legitimacy of competition at the Olympics next August.

The massive probe could have unusual and unnerving repercussions for the clientele of the labs, as the DEA has begun compiling a database of names of those who ordered or participated in illicit performance-enhancing drug activities through the labs for the use of all law enforcement bodies in the United States.

The probe, in which the DEA partnered with the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Postal Service and various other government agencies, targeted raw material manufacturers and suppliers primarily in China and underground drug laboratories in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

It further looked at U.S.-based Web sites that market "conversion kits" that allow for the at-home processing of steroid powders, as well as Internet bodybuilding discussion boards that facilitate and instruct on the illegal use and production of performance-enhancing drugs.

Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are banned by the Olympic movement and most major sports leagues. Side effects of anabolic steroids, which increase muscle mass, include increased body hair, a deepening of the voice, enlargement of the breasts in men and a shrinking of the testicles.

Human growth hormone, believed to build strength and help muscles recover better from injury, can cause an enlargement of the jaw, forehead and hands and feet.

As you can read, you can tell China amongst other countries could be in violation of Anti-doping laws. I just hope this doesn't seriously hurt their chances at hosting the 2008 Summer games.

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