Celebs Eyed In Online Steroid Sales Probe

A New York prosecutor said "celebrities" were customers of a pharmacy that was raided Tuesday as part of a yearlong investigation by that state into illicit steroid sales over the Internet.

Federal and Florida narcotics agents seized drugs and documents at two Signature Pharmacy stores in Orlando. Four company officials, including a married couple who are both pharmacists, were arrested before a throng of reporters.

Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares declined to name the pharmacy's alleged customers and said they were not the focus of his investigation.

Soares was in Orlando as the search warrants were served at the two stores.

Soares had said in an earlier news release that "The businesses shut down by these arrests are believed to supply a large portion of the national market of the illegal online sale of anabolic steroids, Human Growth Hormone and other controlled substances."

The Times Union of Albany, N.Y., which first disclosed the investigation, reported that investigators uncovered evidence that testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs may have been fraudulently prescribed over the Internet to current and former major league baseball and NFL players, college athletes, high school coaches, a former Mr. Olympia champion and another top contender in the bodybuilding competition. Soares would not confirm that.

Arrested on Tuesday were Stan and Naomi Loomis, who own the Signature Pharmacy in downtown Orlando, Stan's brother Mike Loomis and Kirk Calvert, Signature's marketing director. All four have been charged in New York with criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions, criminal sale of a controlled substance and insurance fraud.

Also arrested as a result of the New York investigation were three people Soares' office described as "distributors" from a Sugarland, Texas, company called Cellular Nucleonic Advantage. Soares' office said Eugene Bolton, Monday Miller and Sweta Patel each face multiple felony counts, as does Dr. Anna Maria Santi, described as a "dealer," whose location was not listed.

Twelve agencies, each pursuing its own charges, participated in the Tuesday raids on the Signature Pharmacy locations.

The Loomis' downtown Orlando pharmacy contains a small retail store that sells bodybuilding supplements, a high-tech drug-manufacturing laboratory and executive offices on the second floor. It also filled routine prescriptions for customers, officials said.

Investigators loaded boxes into a truck and seized drugs, including anabolic steroids and a substance known as human growth hormone, said Carl Metzger, narcotics commander for Orlando's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation.

"I can't tell you what percentage of their business was legal and how much involved stacking steroids, but there was a mix," Metzger said.

Soares' office alleged in a written statement that Signature filled prescriptions, in some cases from unlicensed doctors, knowing they had not met patients. The office said at least $250,000 in illegal and controlled substances were sold directly into Albany County, and New York state sales exceeded $10 million.

Before the investigation is complete, the statement said, up to 24 people could face charges, including six doctors and three pharmacists.

Metzger said the search revealed what he called a "raid card" at numerous Signature Pharmacy employees' desks with contact information for lawyers. The top of the documents identified it as a Food and Drug Administration/Drug Enforcement Agency telephone list, but only lawyers were on the card, Metzger said.

"We found that to be somewhat interesting," Metzger said. "Why would you need to have something entitled a phone call list for the DEA and FDA with lawyers' names if you have nothing to hide?"

In 2002, Signature reported revenue of about $500,000.

Steroid purchasers usually have to pay high retail prices for their drugs, in part because many avoid seeking reimbursement from insurance carriers to avoid detection. Mostly, they use cash, checks and credit cards to pay for the drugs.

Some companies have enlisted unethical doctors who blindly write prescriptions for as little as $25 each, according to court documents filed in Albany and in a related federal case in Rhode Island.