Police seize steroids and €5,000 in cash on frontline in fight against doping in sport

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
Seized: Uninandro (above) is a form of nandrolone that can result in liver and heart disease, and can increase the risk of cancer.

It began with a large cardboard box sent from Holland, destined for an address in Britain and opened by a suspicious UK Border Agency official.

Inside were more than 1,000 vials of steroids with a street value of £20,000.

Weeks later, a similar-sized package addressed to the same person was again seized. Contact was made with the police and the London-based UK Anti-Doping Agency over the potential sporting threat.

A few more weeks pass and six unmarked police cars with 16 officers on board pull into a quiet residential cul-de-sac at a time when most residents are setting off for their morning commute.

They come to a halt just outside an innocuous-looking house, the climax to a joint investigation between police officers and UKAD, with Standard Sport along to witness the process.

Cash haul: police found a further  £6,000 at business premises

There is no scuffle, the man inside calmly allowing in officers to arrest him, leaving behind an excitable labrador and a bowl of Weetabix mixed with fresh fruit on the table, the milk unpoured.

Jason Hancock, in charge of the police investigation, explains: “When UKAD contacted us, it was our choice to get involved.

“We saw this as a significant threat, the risk of steroids being distributed, the impact on steroid users, the threat of domestic abuse, a much bigger picture. It’s not just the drugs but the wider implications.”

Inside, the suspect even points to a drawer containing nandrolone and testosterone, saying: “This is what you’re probably looking for.”

In pairs, the officers search each room of a home awash with designer clothes and with a state-of-the-art video camera out front, not quite in keeping with the rest of a modest street

That this could be the potential hub of an illegal steroid operation affecting elite and amateur sport seems, on the surface, unlikely and surreal. Father’s Day cards still rest on a cabinet and one police officer even takes time out from the search to play with the pet pooch.

"In pairs, the officers search each room of a home awash with designer clothes"

But within the four walls of this family home, a large number of Diazepam packets and the drug lidocaine are also uncovered. As each drug is found, the UKAD investigator, with 32 years’ experience in the Metropolitan Police before joining the agency, rings back to their London offices to talk to support staff to identify the drugs in question and specify whether they are on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances.

Also found is €5,000 in cash and, most tellingly, folded-up scraps of paper with what appears to be a ledger of clients, thereby widening the net of the investigation. Each entry starts with a person’s name, the drugs they have been handed and the cost of each unit supplied, one individual name being of particular interest to UKAD.

The drugs, money and ledger are bagged up, along with a mobile phone and computer and taken to the police station for further investigation. After a few hours, the cavalcade of police officers relocates to an office premises on an industrial park a few miles down the road run by the same person, where worried staff open the doors to police.

A large warehouse full of staff in a legitimate business throws up nothing suspicious and, at first glance, it is the same in a locked office upstairs.

Signed photographs of boxers still wrapped up and unopened lean against a wall while a dog basket and a dog toy rest in the corner.

But at the desk are bundles of cash stacked high to the tune of £6,000. A fridge and other boxes are filled with Class C drugs.

Lidocaine (above) is not a banned substance but is often used to mix with other drugs such as cocaine.

UKAD may be better known for investigating jiffy bags with Sir Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky in recent months, or for taking urine samples from British athletes at every level of sport.

But intelligence-led investigations are a widening part of their remit with two full-time investigators now in place — and the entire country to be covered between them.

For a case like this, UKAD’s director of operations Pat Myhill explained: “This is just the beginning. The police have arrested someone and now comes the search for us for relevant information to link the prohibited substances that are banned by WADA.”

UKAD’s hands are tied by a lack of powers or, as one member of staff puts it, “no shiny badge to wave around” so they rely on police forces in London and beyond with already limited resources to back their cause.

But within UKAD there is a concern for the increasing emergence of steroid use in Britain.

“I think we’d describe steroids as a growing problem,” said Myhill. “There’s been an increase in the last couple of years. The reality is that from a criminal perspective it’s quite rewarding.

Testobolin (above) is a synthetic form of male hormone testosterone popular with bodybuilders. Men are at risk  of developing ‘man boobs’

“It’s a cash-rich environment. The profits available for such substances are significant. And the risks are not the same — not as serious as if you were trafficking in hard drugs. Low risk, high reward.”

UKAD have made representations to the Home Office about pushing to criminalise the importation of steroids and they are still awaiting the outcome of that request.

But Myhill, himself a former police officer, is astounded by the risk that people take in using such substances.

“On other raids, I’ve seen underground laboratories, real amateurs working in very unhygienic conditions. And people are blindly taking these drugs.”

For this raid, however, the overall outcome remains unclear, weeks perhaps months before other names are officially linked to it and police convictions or sporting bans are made.

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