PDA

View Full Version : MALAYSIAN police deny allegations of steroid trafficking



beanlicker
06-05-2013, 06:17 PM
05 June 2013| last updated at 12:10AM

FALSE REPORTS: No anabolic steroids coming in or going out of Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: MALAYSIAN police have denied allegations by a United States daily that a worldwide anabolic steroids trafficking operation, masterminded by a Slovenian kingpin, is being operated here.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a US Treasury Department spokesman as saying that Mihael Karner a.k.a Jozef Topolovec of Slovenia directs a worldwide steroid trafficking organisation.
The steroids were made in India and Greece, the spokesman said, before being shipped to customers in Eastern Europe and the US. Hundreds of websites advertising the steroids were managed in Malaysia under his umbrella company, called Asia Pharma.

Federal Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department deputy director Datuk Haris Wong Abdullah said police had checked out the company's operations and found it to be inactive.
"We have found no truth in the reports of anabolic steroids coming in or going out of the country. It is an issue which has been blown out of proportion," he told the New Straits Times.
"We are monitoring the situation as the suspect, Mihael Karner, currently an international fugitive is hiding in his native country. Police are checking with the Immigration Department whether he had previously visited Malaysia," Haris said.

A check on Google showed Asia Pharma was a limited liability pharmaceuticals company in Kuala Lumpur with a local phone and fax number but provided no mailing address. Both contact numbers were no longer in service.

On its home page, the company said it's main goal was the manufacture and sale of affordable yet high quality generic pharmaceutical products to developing countries that could not afford the expensive proprietary drugs.

Most of its 56-listed products dealt with male and female hormone treatment. It claimed the mission of "Asia Pharma Ltd was to improve the efficiency of healthcare systems worldwide by providing more drugs of the same quality for the same amount of money".

Last week, US president Barack Obama designated several individuals under Washington's Kingpin Statute, which targets large-scale drug traffickers including the notorious Tijuana cartel in Mexico.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the move came in the wake of Liberty Reserve, a global currency exchanger registered in Costa Rica that was indicted last week for running a US$6 billion (RM18.6 billion) money-laundering operation said to be the world's largest.

The daily also reported that Obama had imposed sanctions against six individuals and groups, including Karner, Afghan Kotwal Noorzai, the head of a drug trafficking network, Mexican kingpin Luis Fernando Sanchez Arrelano, the reputed operational leader of the Tijuana Cartel.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Karner heads an international organisation that sells anabolic steroids on the Internet and has created shell companies to hide the origin of the profits.
An anabolic steroid is known as a performance-booster and consumed for cosmetic purposes but which can severely damage a person's health in the long run.

Karner, his wife and brother were charged in a Massachusetts federal court in 2010 on three counts of money-laundering conspiracy, and importing and distributing steroids. He was given bail and is reported to have since fled to Slovenia where he is continuing his operations.