[BMW]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Federal agents raided the laboratory and home of an Illinois chemist who authorities believe created one of the steroids at the heart of the BALCO sports doping scandal, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.


Investigators with the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration searched Thursday in Champaign, Ill., at the home and laboratory of chemist Patrick Arnold, the newspaper reported, citing sources who wished not to be identified.



BALCO founder Victor Conte and vice president James Valente identified Arnold as the source of a once-undetectable steroid called "the clear." Conte, Valente, track coach Remi Korchemny and Greg Anderson - the longtime friend and personal trainer of Giants slugger Barry Bonds - pleaded guilty to distributing steroids to elite athletes and will be sentenced next month.

Two sources with knowledge of the latest raids also told the Chronicle that the San Francisco grand jury is still hearing testimony in the BALCO case, suggesting the possibility of more indictments to come despite the four plea agreements.

A spokeswoman for the IRS would not confirm the latest raids, but Lt. Ed Ogle of the Champaign County sheriff's office told the Chronicle that deputies assisted federal authorities on a raid Thursday of Proviant Technologies, Arnold's lab in downstate Illinois. Federal agents raided the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative two years ago, carting away boxloads of documents.

Messages left by The Associated Press with Arnold's lab, the sheriff's department and the IRS in Illinois were not immediately returned. A message at Arnold's home said his voice mailbox is full.

The Chronicle said it obtained a copy of a 2001 e-mail exchange between Arnold and Conte that appeared to indicate Arnold was sending the BALCO chief a version of a newly designed steroid called tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG. The drug, administered by placing a couple of drops under the tongue, was designed to be undetectable.

"What I am sending you today is a small sample, about 5 ccs, of the supplement," Arnold wrote to Conte, adding there "should be enough for experimental testing. 2.5-7.5 milligram (whatever that comes out to in cc's or drops), under the tongue should be a decent dosing range."

The Chronicle reported, based on leaked grand jury transcripts, that Bonds testified he used "the clear" as well as another substance called "the cream" but didn't know they were substances prosecutors have identified as steroids. Within the supplement industry, Arnold was dubbed the "father of prohormones" and was famous for popularizing androstenedione, or andro, in the American market. That substance, which baseball slugger Mark McGwire acknowledged using during the 1998 season when he broke baseball's single-season home run record, has since been banned by Congress as a steroid precursor.

hes getting shafted by the dea

[snakebyte05]

Interesting, there was a big thread on this here yesterday and now it sgone, maybe it was moved somewhere else.

[Pioneer]

this was deleted twice already, guess this will make it 3.

[snakebyte05]

Why is it being deleted? Was there something wrong with it? It is news.

[Pioneer]

i dont know, the first one turned into an arguement which is why it was deleted i think. the second was made about 10 minutes before this one was posted and it got deleted immediately.

[Matthew D]

I am going to leave this for now.. but truthfully even though it is news it doesn't need to turn into a political debate..we have some members that seem to turn every thread they post to into a damn polical call to arms..

[CEDeoudes59]

I concur.

[snakebyte05]

I am going to leave this for now.. but truthfully even though it is news it doesn't need to turn into a political debate..we have some members that seem to turn every thread they post to into a damn polical call to arms..

I completely agree. I for one like to not have everything turn political. I am a political man, but when it gets in the way of everything, I think there may be a problem. Some of my family cannot discuss anything without having a debate about it. Basically I just stopped discussing things with them.

[davisville64]

I am going to leave this for now.. but truthfully even though it is news it doesn't need to turn into a political debate..we have some members that seem to turn every thread they post to into a damn polical call to arms..

Speaking of politics, I say we create an Anabolic Minds party

[Matthew D]

It would split within the night that it was created

[diamonddave]

The original one wasn't deleted. It was moved to the "Politics" board.

dd

[-2z-]

No matter who u vote for, it's gonna be hard to find someone in government that's going to say, "You know what? AAS/ PH's are pretty darn cool!"
........Well.....unless we get SS elected to an office somehow.