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>
> Steroids sting leads to arrest of 2 brothers from Bay Area
> ONE ALLEGEDLY STOLE DRUGS WHILE WORKING AT GENENTECH
> By Sean Webby
> Mercury News
> Article Launched: 09/25/2007 01:33:50 AM PDT
>
> Snagged by a sprawling federal steroids sting, two Bay Area brothers are
> facing federal allegations that they stole human growth hormone from
> biotech giant Genentech Inc. and sold it through a sports nutrition store
> in San Jose.
>
> Their arrests represented just a fraction of Operation Raw Deal, the
> largest steroid crackdown in U.S. history, a coordinated effort to disrupt
> worldwide steroid manufacturing and distribution.
>
> The Drug Enforcement Agency, which announced the operation Monday, was
> assisted by nine other countries, including China. Agents raided 56 labs
> across the country that manufactured anabolic steroids and human growth
> hormone and seized 11.4 million doses of drugs, according to the DEA.
>
> Locally, Lance Tomlinson, 38, of San Jose, who owns Max Muscle Sports
> Nutrition in San Jose, and his brother, Brandon, 44, of Burlingame, who
> works at Genentech, are facing time in federal prison if they are
> convicted of conspiracy to possess and intent to distribute human growth
> hormone. One of Lance Tomlinson's employees, Jeffrey Coffron, 33, of San
> Jose was also charged.
>
> Brandon Tomlinson was released on $100,000 bail; his brother is still in
> custody and is scheduled to appear in court today.
>
> A married couple from Southern California, Larry Pollack and Lynda
> Wallace, were also nabbed as part of the local dragnet, spearheaded from
> the San Jose office of the DEA, and charged Sept. 17 with possession and
> intent to distribute steroids. It looks as though the couple and the
> brothers were fingered by the same confidential informant - an underground
> steroid lab operator.
>
> None of the defendants could be reached for comment.
>
> At Tomlinson's Muscle Max store on Meridian Avenue, an employee refused to
> comment. Muscle Max is a franchise with other locations in the Bay Area
> that aren't connected to Tomlinson.
>
> The Bay Area brothers and three other local defendants have no known
> connection to other defendants of Operation Raw Deal, a DEA official said.
> Some of those busts were much bigger. In Long Island, N.Y., for example,
> agents seized 800,000 doses of alleged steroids.
>
> "Everything is interwoven in the market for steroids," said Michael
> Chapman, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA in Northern
> California. "This is a big attempt by the DEA to go after major players."
>
> In the two local cases, agents seized a total of 73 bottles of human
> growth hormone; 79 vials of steroids, some crystal methamphetamine and 15
> marijuana plants. HGH is used legally for medical purposes - such as to
> counteract wasting caused by AIDS - and illegally as the stealth drug that
> has such athletes as St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel under a
> cloud of suspicion.
>
> The case against the Tomlinson brothers began earlier this year with tips
> and help from four confidential informants. One informant said that a Max
> Muscle store in San Jose was selling HGH and other controlled drugs,
> according to a court document.
>
> The informant reported the drug was being stolen from Genentech, a South
> San Francisco company that manufactures HGH for medical uses.
> Investigators later confirmed that Brandon Tomlinson worked there.
>
> Another informant told agents Lance Tomlinson said he could get him
> "anything" - referring to steroids, HGH and the painkiller Vicodin.
>
> Before he approached a federal agent with information, one informant
> worked his own private sting against the brothers - buying drugs,
> including HGH, from Tomlinson, who bragged of connections with the Mexican
> Mafia gang, according to court documents.
>
> He was allegedly getting the drugs from a connection at Genentech - his
> brother Brandon, who worked there.
>
> An informant later contacted Genentech security with an offer to expose
> the alleged inside theft. The company worked with the informant to buy
> $2,000 worth of the drug from Lance Tomlinson, paying the informant an
> additional $500 as an "extra thank you," court records show.
>
> In an e-mail, Genentech officials said the company "takes these charges
> against one of its employees very seriously and is fully cooperating with
> the investigation."
>
> "Our growth hormone products are approved for use in children and adults
> with growth hormone deficiency and growth failure associated with serious
> diseases. The appropriate use of human growth hormone is extremely
> important to Genentech."
>
> Genentech also said it has "strict policies to maintain control and
> security over our products," but did not elaborate.
>
> An informant allegedly provided an undercover agent with the opportunity
> to buy HGH from an employee at Max Muscle, Jeffrey Coffron.
>
> The suspects were all arrested at their homes Thursday. Also seized were
> some crystal meth and marijuana, court records say.
>
> On a broader level, experts disagreed on the impact of the big steroid
> sting.
>
> "I think this underscores the magnitude of the problem," said Gary Wadler,
> a New York expert on drugs in sports and a member of the World Anti-Doping
> Agency. "This isn't just a problem confined to elite athletes or a couple
> guys in a gym shooting HGH. This is a big business, a pyramid whose
> structure works down to a base of high school students."
>
> But Victor Conte, the mastermind behind Balco Laboratories, was more
> cynical about what impact the crackdown will have on athletics.
>
> Conte, the lab founder who was convicted in 2005 of steroid and money
> laundering charges after the local case that blew the lid off steroid use
> in sports, wrote in an e-mail to the Mercury News: "I still don't believe
> there is a genuine interest by the Olympic governing body officials or
> those who control the dollars in professional sports to crack down on the
> rampant use of drugs. They're simply afraid of the truth because it will
> reveal the fact that it's all about the money. In short, athletes will
> simply go back to having someone get the drugs from a friend of a friend
> of a friend.
>
> "Most are not stupid enough to give their name, address and credit card
> over the Internet. The anti-doping policies and procedures are still inept
> and until they establish more effective testing procedures there will
> continue to be rampant use of drugs in sport."
>
>
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