The process is simple, too simple. Typing “purchase steroids” on Google will be enough to open the doors to doping, as long as you have a credit card or a little cash. Once the norm, Western Union transfers still exist, but are relegated to second place by bank transfers – by card or transfer – and Bitcoin. “Giant Muscle”, an emeritus member of the Meso-RX forum, the online doping bible, recounts the bygone era from which he survived. “You had to go to a point of sale or the post office to make the transaction, then wait a few days. »
A method, he said, which had the merit of discouraging the most impatient. “Everything really comes together so that young people can take the plunge quickly. Today, in ten minutes it was fixed. » Or even less. Watch in hand, it took us barely five minutes to find ourselves on the payment page of the 123steroid site. 185 euros (including 15 delivery costs) for a vial (small vial) of 10ml of trenbolone, a powerful anabolic steroid.
Transfer to a Czech account and Vinted-style parcels
By searching longer in the forums, where the brands of clandestine laboratories parade on dedicated topics, the price immediately becomes more interesting. Each seller makes his commercial announcement, promises products of better quality than the competition, unbeatable prices, and no more than 5% of packages intercepted by customs. We choose one at random from the lot. For the same vial of trembolone, count 33 euros, plus 20 delivery costs, or 53 in total. Eight days after transferring the amount to an account in the Czech Republic, the product will be picked up by the Austrian post office and will land in our hands in packaging that is more Vinted than international traffic. These individual orders, which are difficult to trace, are an ordeal for the authorities.
For a first treatment, and with a little flair, you just need to put “around 150 euros” on the table, estimates Giant Muscle. “Before, a young person who didn’t have too much money still had to pay double. » Aspiring bodybuilder, Marouane*, 21, perhaps didn’t have the right contacts: put end to end, he got 470 euros. “I finance all of this with my salary”, thanks to several activities in construction, maintenance and coaching.
If the internet is gradually taking precedence over humans, a question of generation, word of mouth continues to exist in sports halls. For example, trainers have never stopped taking talents with high potential onto the slippery slope. A deal presented as a win-win. The trainer sells his products to a student whom he promises to accompany to the Olympus of bodybuilding. “We talk about doping around us, we sell it around us,” explains Sylvain Noyau, commander of the Central Office for Combating Environmental and Public Health Attacks (Oclaesp). There is this consumer-reseller logic, but most of the time in a small circle. »
Andy Magnusson, from consumption to trafficking of anabolics
It was in a very confidential loop that it all started for Andy Magnusson, a coach who repented of doping and was convicted of trafficking anabolics. A practice that is severely repressed: five years of imprisonment and fines of €75,000, which can be increased to seven years and €150,000 when the acts are committed in an organized gang or against a minor or by a person having authority over one or more athletes.
From his first treatment of steroids late in life, at age 34, to keep face in front of “the young people who are coming up” to international business, everything happened very quickly for Andy (see box). “It started with one of my colleagues who brought me some products, which I tested. I was convinced. From there, I ask him if he doesn’t have another product. Then, I tell a friend about it, who tries it and also likes it. And it went up like that, little by little. »
At the start of the chain there is Eric, a self-proclaimed chemist, to whom the coach orders through a mutual acquaintance. The low-cost Walter White began playing sorcerers’ apprentice at home for his own consumption. More complex than asking a dealer, but much cheaper in the long run. Familiar with the subject of doping, Youtuber The Rob summarizes the idea: “To do your lab, you buy the molecules in China on an equivalent of AliExpress for nothing at all. You have a chemical process that is not complicated to do, you take some equipment and you get by with the tutorials that you can find on the Internet. »
Eric’s kitchen, dismantled in 2015 in Val d’Oise, is a great classic of the genre. “A horrible fridge, tanks, some kind of mixers, powder that we mix with something under steam to avoid infections, and that’s it,” Magnusson described, when confronted with photos of the place during interrogations. The most worrying? His lab wasn’t the worst in the business. Damien Ressiot, director of strategic development at AFLD, spent a year with Oclaesp in 2015 as a technical advisor. And he remembers the garages of Ile-de-France houses where ordinary citizens manufactured their steroids “without health measures or quality monitoring… It’s just crazy to think that 15-year-old kids can be led to consume these products. »
Recipes for making your own homemade testo
Return to our forum, “home labs” section. Another regular here, a sort of Marmiton of steroids in his own right, offers, with supporting photos, a multitude of recipes for making his homemade doping products. Even if everything is measured to the nearest gram or milliliter, the basic equipment (beaker, electronic balance and… extruder gunmore suitable for redoing the joints in your bathroom) affixed to the desk does not guarantee optimal precision.
The risk of overdose is real. Marc*, a 23-year-old bodybuilding practitioner, has been consuming performance-enhancing products ordered on forums from foreign suppliers for four years. His first experience resulted in an abscess the size of a tennis ball on the buttocks, the preferred area for intramuscular injections. ” Scandal. The product was disgusting, and it didn’t even work. When I had it analyzed, I was told it was cooking oil. » A common scam in the industry. “Everything is cheaper online,” quips Andy Magnusson. The only problem is you don’t know what you’re putting up your ass. »
*The first name has been changed
Interview – Andy Magnusson, 45 years old, sports coach and former dealer of performance-enhancing products
What made you get into steroid trafficking?
I saw an opportunity to make money. It was simply the entrepreneurial side that I found exhilarating, that’s what I explained to the judge. It wasn’t so much about selling products, which is bad, as it was about starting to sell two or three vials and seeing it all grow to the point of becoming international traffic. I was so happy to be important and to have managed to develop a business, even an illicit one, on my own… The successful side that I didn’t have in life, I had with doping. But I knew I had gotten myself into a bad business.
How did this business work?
99% of the raw material came from Asia. It arrived at certain people’s homes, from whom I collected them. Then, I took them to the chemist who had his little lab. Then, with my colleague, we placed an order for X products. At first, he was the one who kept them and brought them back to me little by little. Then he had some problems and I had to deal with the stocks myself. I also brought some back to my food supplement store, for convenience. This is what cost me dearly. If things had continued as before, the police would have only found 4-5 vials when they got me.
How big has this business become in your life?
It’s simple. If I put my phone down for half an hour, I ended up with 75 unread messages. I spent my time responding, checking stocks, managing special orders, sending emails… There was the after-sales service side to ensure as well. The guy who ended up with a broken vial in the lot, I took his request into consideration. You have to imagine a mini-company with all the problems that you might encounter there. Customer relations, stock management, purchase of raw materials, receipt of goods, payment to suppliers, etc.
What benefits did you get from it?
Much less than we might have thought. My margins were small. What made me have money was volume. There were months where it brought me 3,000 euros, great months at 10,000 euros. But I never did the math. I spent a lot on restaurants, taxis, outings, clothes. I bought a few watches… You don’t count your money, you put gas whenever you want, you buy a phone if you want one.
What did the police find at your house?
When I was raided, it was at home. The police found everything. You have to imagine a huge sports bag full of vials, there must have been 400 or 500 at my house. Somehow, when I was arrested, I felt liberated. I could not any more. I only slept three hours a night and never soundly. It was such an anxiety-inducing job.
Looking back, how do you view this period of your life?
I was sentenced to five years in prison, with one year remission. Four years firm. There was nothing worth it. My coaching business was working very well, I was earning almost as good a living as when I was doing business. Suddenly you lose everything, you no longer see your son, you no longer see people, you are deprived of your freedom. You no longer have any money coming in, and when you come out, you start from zero, you’re no longer a person. And that’s complicated. People forget you pretty quickly.