DEA Arrests 124 in Nationwide Steriod Raids

In a series of daylight raids that lasted four days and ended Sunday, Drug Enforcement Administration agents shut down 26 underground steroid labs and made more than 50 arrests across the U.S., and additionally the DEA has identified 37 Chinese factories that purportedly supplied the raw materials for the labs.^[1] The DEA is calling this the largest performance-enhancing drug crackdown in U.S. history; the raids capped an 18-month probe that has netted 124 arrests in 27 states, closed 56 labs, $6.5 million, and 532 pounds of raw steroid powder.^[2]

The crackdown, titled "Raw Deal" by the DEA, grew out of a 2005 operation targeting eight Mexican labs that were allegedly responsible for 80 percent of America's underground steroid trade; it is thought that several large Chinese factories had been supplying the Mexican labs.^[3] When the Mexican labs were closed in what came to be known as "Operation Gear Grinder," those Chinese factories allegedly redirected their pipeline to the U.S. ^[4]

A federal grand jury in Rhode Island indicted the Chinese company Genescience Pharmaceutical Co. and its CEO, Lei Jin, last week on charges including money laundering and conspiracy to facilitate the sale of smuggled goods.^[5] Lei Jin, and three other men have been charged in the ring that used the Internet and email to ship the muscle enhancement drugs worldwide.^[6]Jin is accused of marketing the drugs, under the brand name Jinotropin, through e-mail and Web sites.^[7]


Smuggling goods into the United States
18 U.S.C § 545 covers the offense of smuggling goods into the U.S., in that section it states that whoever knowingly and willfully, with intent to defraud the United States, smuggles, or clandestinely introduces or attempts to smuggle or clandestinely introduce into the United States any merchandise which should have been invoiced, or makes out or passes, or attempts to pass, through the customhouse any false, forged, or fraudulent invoice, or other document or paper; or^[8]

Whoever fraudulently or knowingly imports or brings into the United States, any merchandise contrary to law, or receives, conceals, buys, sells, or in any manner facilitates the transportation, concealment, or sale of such merchandise after importation, knowing the same to have been imported or brought into the United States contrary to law— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. Proof of defendant’s possession of such goods, unless explained to the satisfaction of the jury, shall be deemed evidence sufficient to authorize conviction for violation of this section.^[9]

Merchandise introduced into the United States in violation of this section, or the value thereof, to be recovered from any person described in the first or second paragraph of this section, shall be forfeited to the United States.^[10].

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^[1] Shaun Assael, Raw Deal' busts labs across U.S., many supplied by China, ESPN The Magazine Online, September 24, 2007, available at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3033532 (last visited September 24, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] W. Zachary Malinowski, Chinese steroid kingpin indicted in Providence, Providence Journal, September 24, 2007, available at http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_09242007_roids.106ac79b7.html (last visited September 24, 2007).
^[7] Id.
^[8] 18 U.S.C § 545 (2007).
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.