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Europa Sports Products is a familiar name in the supplements world. The Charlotte, N.C., wholesaler sponsors exhibits at bodybuilding shows like the Arnold Classic and stocks shelves in Gold's Gyms and GNC stores nationwide. But as a recent investigation by The Magazine found, it also keeps online pharmacies well-supplied with designer steroids.
Acting on a tip, we posed as the founders of a new supplements company -- creating the website ProGymGear.com to back our ruse -- to see exactly what Europa offers. When we informed a sales rep by e-mail that we were "targeting the hard-core gym customer," he didn't ask for a business license -- or any other ID, for that matter. He went right into a pitch for Bulk Tabs, a product of Florida's IDS Sports. Explaining that the supplement is "highly androgenic," he wrote that it is made from "real-deal ingredients" and, with regard to drug tests, that it would "come out false."
We paid $1,000 for four boxes of Bulk Tabs and two other IDS offerings: Mass Tabs and Sostonol. When we asked for something "similar to Superdrol," a drug whose sale the FDA prohibited in 2006, the rep suggested AnEvol, by Evolution Labs of Florida. "It is [the] identical formula to Superdrol," he wrote. "People are going to go ape s over this."
The package arrived by regular mail to a post office box we'd set up, and we promptly sent off samples to Aegis Sciences, a Nashville lab that does the drug testing for the WWE. In a standard analysis for 11 known steroid compounds, everything tested negative.
Was the stuff really drug-free or just able to fool a test, as advertised? That was a question for Don Catlin, the head of LA's Anti-Doping Research Institute. Catlin's deeper analysis showed that one of Sostonol's many-lettered ingredients is chemical code for Madol, a powerful designer steroid originally developed by BALCO chemist Patrick Arnold. Another, Oral Turinabol, was a favorite of the old East German machine. "This wasn't done by someone with a high school degree," Catlin concluded. "Whoever made it knew what he was doing." An industry source to whom the label was shown went even further: "No one is making this stuff in the U.S. The only place you can get it is China."
In fact, the owner of IDS, Nicol Worrell, did acknowledge in a phone interview that some of his ingredients come from China. But when asked specifically about Sostonol, he retreated, calling it "a small part of our business," before deferring to the manufacturing plant he claimed to contract with. "They handle all of our ingredients," he said.
Europa's salesman was as good as his word about AnEvol, though. Catlin found it to be directly related to Superdrol and to contain the prohibited synthetic steroid methasterone. A letter from us asking for comment -- sent by FedEx -- to the manufacturer's address on the box went unreturned.
Eric Hillman, Europa's CEO, didn't return a message seeking comment about our findings either. But he might be happy to know his reps are on top of things. Our contact continues to e-mail us about placing our next order.
-- Shaun Assael
