Oct 17, 2014
Westhead: After $10M steroid bust, officials explore ties to Canadian athletes
Police in Alberta seized nearly $10 million worth of steroids in a string of raids at five locations in Edmonton two weeks ago. And as TSN Senior Correspondent Rick Westhead writes, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport is investigating whether those dealers sold banned performance-enhancing drugs to professional or amateur athletes across the country.
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport is investigating whether steroid dealers in Edmonton may have sold banned performance-enhancing drugs to professional or amateur athletes across the country.
Two weeks ago, police in Alberta seized nearly $10 million worth of steroids in a string of raids at five locations in Edmonton.
Four people were arrested in what authorities say is the biggest illegal steroid seizure ever by Canadian police, who took into custody 350,000 tablets, 10,500 vials and 124 kilograms worth of raw steroid powder.
TSN has learned that days after the bust, CCES officials contacted Edmonton police to ask whether they have obtained a customer list.
Edmonton police inspector Darcy Strang told TSN that his officers have obtained ledger documents and one laptop computer, which will be searched alongside other evidence in coming months.
Strang said police worked on the investigation since May and used three search warrants to gather evidence, including a pill press, glassware and beakers worth more than $100,000. The drugs were imported from China, Strang said. He declined to say how they were smuggled into Canada.
It's unclear whether the Canada Border Services Agency is investigating.
Strang said he's not sure when police will scrutinize the paper trail and laptop.
"Our priority is to get the drugs processed," he said in an interview.
As for a potential customer list, Strang said, "we haven't gotten to that yet. We will look at whatever we have. If we have professional athletes on the list, I don't really know, actually, what would happen with that."
Police allege that the steroids were being sold in person and over the Internet to customers in cities as far away as St. John's, Newfoundland.
Strang said it's unlikely that the alleged dealers were selling directly to customers at colleges and universities. If any post-secondary school students were buyers, they may have had the drugs shipped to someone at least one step removed from campus, Strang said.
"There may be a layer of secrecy there," he said.
Police have not presented evidence that any college or university athletes bought illegal steroids from the Edmonton criminal ring and in Canada, it is not illegal to possess steroids, but it is illegal to import them or possess them for the purpose of trafficking.
The Edmonton bust comes months after three top Canadian college football prospects tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs at a CFL-sanctioned training camp.
In August, the University of Manitoba confirmed that former defensive player Ranji Atwall was among those who tested positive. The names of the other players have not yet been disclosed.
Similar worries prompted the University of Saskatchewan to test its entire football team, a test that caught another drug cheat, lineman Jordan Arkko, who tested positive for human growth hormone, another banned substance that is tougher to detect than traditional steroids.
Critics have called college football in Canada a "Wild West" where players game the system without fear of being caught. That's because there are 11,000 athletes competing in Canadian university sports, but only enough money to administer 200 drug tests per year.
In 2010, the University of Waterloo suspended its football program after a wave of players were discovered using steroids. There was a brief period when drug testing across Canada increased, but it has since reversed course.
CCES chief executive Paul Melia declined to comment on whether his staff are investigating the Edmonton bust.
He said all such investigations are confidential. But Melia did say his agency has hired two full-time staff within the past months who are tasked with building relationships with police and other law enforcement officials.
Prior to the Edmonton arrests, the largest steroid seizure in Canada was in 2008 when Quebec police seized 400,000 tablets from a home north of Montreal, stumbling on the drugs while investigating a domestic disturbance call. Police at the time said they believed those drugs were destined for amateur weightlifters.