Agents Arrest 124 in Drug Raids

Approximately 70 percent of the enforcement action has occurred since Thursday, Payne said. Specific details of the actions taken overseas were not available as of yesterday, but China was considered the source of the "vast majority" of the illicit drugs, Simmons said.

U.S. law enforcement considered indicting the Chinese companies that supplied the illicit drugs, but decided that a partnership with the Chinese authorities would be more productive, Simmons said. Several agents flew to China this February to discuss the investigation.

The probe, in which the DEA partnered with the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Postal Service and various other government agencies, targeted raw material manufacturers and suppliers primarily in China and underground drug laboratories in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

It further looked at U.S.-based Web sites that market "conversion kits" that allow for the at-home processing of steroid powders, as well as Internet bodybuilding discussion boards that facilitate and instruct on the illegal use and production of performance-enhancing drugs.

"Operation Raw Deal uncovered a clandestine web of international drug dealers who lurk on the Internet for young adults craving the artificial advantage of anabolic steroids," DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy said in a statement. "Today we reveal the truth behind the underground steroid market: dangerous drugs cooked up all too often in filthy conditions with no regard to safety, giving Americans who purchase them the ultimate raw deal."

Recent raids turned up anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, insulin growth factor and other drugs and chemicals including ketamine, fentanyl, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and GHB, Payne said.

The operation grew out of a massive bust in Mexico in 2005 known as Gear Grinder, which took down eight Mexican steroid producers credited with supplying more than 80 percent of the illicit steroids in the United States. That bust, Simmons said, pushed virtually all of the remaining U.S. steroid business to China.

Simmons said the labs taken down in the various busts showed no adherence to any standards for safety or sanitation, with drugs being mixed in basements or bathtubs before being shipped out to consumers.

Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are banned by the Olympic movement and most major sports leagues. Side effects of anabolic steroids, which increase muscle mass, include increased body hair, a deepening of the voice, enlargement of the breasts in men and a shrinking of the testicles.

Human growth hormone, believed to build strength and help muscles recover better from injury, can cause an enlargement of the jaw, forehead and hands and feet.