Steroid Sting Fallout: Epidemic of Abuse

Nov. 1, 2007 — -- After a recent series of raids uncovered illegally produced steroids by the barrel full, ABC News has learned that the alleged underground labs might have had as many as 30,000 to 40,000 customers.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says it has identified those alleged clients of the thriving multi-million-dollar black market industry through e-mails and credit card purchase records obtained during the course of the investigation.

Law enforcement agents discovered steroids, human growth hormone and other drugs at 56 clandestine labs across the United States as part of a two-year operation that culminated with a massive sweep earlier this fall. Officials say the caches could have supplied more than 11 million individual doses of the drugs.

Additionally, investigators say they seized $6.5 million during the operation.

"People are using this stuff in huge amounts, and other people are making a lot of money on that abuse," DEA spokesman Rusty Payne told ABC News.

"We see in an investigation like this how much money can be made," he said. "That's the motivation for what these people are doing."

Dealers utilized underground Web sites, chat rooms and message boards to market the steroids. The drugs were typically bought online, by credit card, and then mailed or shipped to the buyer's home.

Authorities said the goal of steroid users is often simple -- to gain a competitive advantage.

"I think you have a lot of weekend warriors, a lot of body builders," Payne said of typical steroid users, but there are also "athletes at every level -- professional, college, high school."

"High school girls are taking steroids now to look better, to get more tone -- in some cases, to get that athletic edge as well," he added.

And steroid traffickers often don't fit the profile of the stereotypical drug dealer. Last March in East Hanover, Pa. police arrested a body builder who also served as a volunteer football coach for a local high school for illegally manufacturing steroids.