News

April 14, 2009

Seizure of a large amount of anabolic steroids on Dobovec - information from the press conference

Representatives of the Slovenian police and customs revealed at today's press conference at Celje Customs Office the details of a recent discovery of a large amount of illegal anabolic steroids at the border crossing for international traffic Dobovec.

Dušan Rajgelj of the Investigation Section at the General Customs Directorate said that on 2 April 2009 2 Serbian citizens, a 32-year-old driver and his 31-year-old travelling companion, had driven from Croatia to the border crossing for international traffic Dobovec in a private car with Slovenian license plates.

After they had provided a negative answer to the question of customs officers whether they have something to declare, members of Celje customs mobile unit, who were at the time present at the border crossing, decided to carry out an examination of the car.

They immediately suspected that smuggled goods could be hidden in the spare wheel, where they found 16 plastic bags with ampoules of testosterone depo.

In a further examination they discovered 11 bags with ampoules under the plastic lining in the left rear part of the trunk, and 30 bags in the interior behind the lining of right front and back doors.

In total, 57 bags contained 5,650 ampoules with the illegal anabolic steroid testosterone.

Furthermore, during the examination of the passenger's luggage, customs officers also found 20 empty boxes with the inscription Testosterone depo (5 ampoules x 1 ml 250 mg/ml), prepared for the packaging of ampoules. Customs officers seized the goods and the vehicle, introduced the criminal proceeding and notified the border police of the matter.

According to the words of Drago Menegalija, police representative for public relations in the area of criminality, criminal police officers of Celje Police Directorate in cooperation with Rogatec Border Police Station detained the suspected Serbian citizens in accordance with Article 157 of the Criminal Procedure Act and continued with the procedure by collecting notifications and investigation operations. They filed a criminal complaint against both Serbian citizens due to suspicion of the commitment of criminal acts of illicit production of and traffic in illicit drugs, illicit substances in sports and precursor substances for manufacturing illicit drugs in accordance with Article 186/I of the Penal Code (KZ-1). The suspects were brought with a criminal charge to an investigating judge of Celje District Court, who ordered detention against the 31-year-old Serbian citizen. The private car was seized and with a criminal complaint, handed over to the court, since it had been used in the smuggling of illicit substances in sports.

The criminal investigation was conducted in cooperation with the District State Prosecutor's Office of Celje.

***

Problems of production of and traffic of anabolic steroids

Anabolic steroids are illicit substances. They are synthetic compounds, which are similar to male sex hormones and based on testosterone. They encourage the growth of skeletal muscles and development of sexual indications. Besides this they also have other effects; therefore, misuse can lead to serious health issues. They are taken in peroral way in form of tablets and capsules or intramuscularly; they are also available in form of creams. Athletes, who misuse anabolic androgenic steroids, simultaneously use other steroids, since this achieves a greater effect on muscles.

In 2008, the Slovenian customs discovered and seized 30,800 tablets, 143,015 mg and 2,055 ml of anabolic steroids. The value of a testosterone ampoule on the black market is between 15 and 20 EUR.