Thread: Operation Sledgehammer: International Pharmaceuticals busted in Europe

More on Operation Sledgehammer

Over 30 steroid dealers and several tons of performance enhancing drugs were seized earlier this week in Operation Sledgehammer, capping off 14 months of undercover work which began in 2009.

I guess the interesting thing about this bust was that we found out that two of the partners in IP (Europe) were noted authors of a German language steroid book. It’s a bad enough move to use steroids illegally when you’re a widely known expert on them, and an even worse move to sell them – which is exactly what these guys were doing.

I’m not sure if the physical labs (where raw hormone is converted to an end product) were found, or if they are suspected to be overseas in China, India, and Packistan. Unfortunately, because of the clumsy Google translation from German to English, I’m really not sure if this means the powder was produced abroad and converted in-country to a finished product, or if the entire thing was produced abroad. I suspect the former, although the newspaper articles imply the latter.

Certainly, at least some of their steroids were produced abroad and smuggled into Austria in their final form, as a large quantity of Dutch Lab products were confiscated.

Since these guys were pretty big Growth Hormone dealers, and China is putting on their latest dog and pony show about cracking down on GH (and steroid) dealers, I think prices might start going up on growth hormone across the board.

I’ve still got a bunch of unanswered questions about this bust, and whether or not there was any connection with December’s Axio Labs busts, which were spearheaded by police in the neighboring company….but until I find out something of use, I can’t imagine saying much more about Operation Sledgehammer.

I have not read about lab busts either. German media reports that they had their manufacturing done in India and the the finished product got shipped to Denmark and the UK from where it was redistributed to Germany and Austria. They only found ready to sell gear in three warehouses in Austria.

Among the 25 people in custody in Austria, most of them were brick and mortar resellers like in gyms posing as "fitness gurus". Undercover cops have infiltrated the organization: they let themselves get hired as a local dealer.

The today report in German Spiegel magazine is actually about a bust that happend already in September 2010. 2 men were jailed back then.

On a sidenote, this week homes of 14 members of the Berlin chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang were searched for anabolics.