Archive for July 24th, 2009

United States Attorney General Praises Use of Terrorism Laws to Disrupt Illegal HGH Market
by Millard Baker

United States Attorney General Eric Holder praised the Justice Department’s use of terrorism laws to disrupt the illegal distribution of human growth hormone (hGH) during his remarks at a Justice Department leadership conference. Holder celebrated the use of the Patriot Act to eliminate a top supplier of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). The Patriot Act law “permitted” the United States to pursue an international biopharmaceutical company and seize millions of dollars “physically located” in another sovereign country.
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American Cellular Labs Raid

Tren Xtreme and Mass Xtreme, are manufactured by American Cellular Labs and marketed as a “potent legal alternative to” steroids. But according to the New York Times, authorities alleged in search warrants that the supplements contain steroids!

Are Max Muscle Stores In On It?

Authorities said that Max Muscle, a supplement store with about 100 locations, paid American Cellular Labs to be the exclusive retailer of these products. Maurice Sandoval (American Cellular’s CEO), said in a telephone interview that he himself never personally sold steroids but declined to comment on whether the company had ever sold steroids. Reporters phoned Max Muscle’s head office in Anaheim, California and were told that no one was available to comment on how many Max Muscle stores carried the American Cellular products. “This is not our product,” said the man, who would not give his name and hung up.
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NBTY Buys 350 Stores In The U.K.

Do you shop at Vitamin Shoppe, Vitamin World or GNC? Well the company that owns “Vitamin World” is called “NBTY” and they are absolutely massive. In fact, back in 2003 they plucked a small piece of GNC when they bought all the GNC stores in the U.K and some in Germany! The acquisition was relatively small: NBTY paid Numico $12 million for 49 GNC stores in the U.K. and 7 in Germany. They also bought store chain Holland & Barrett a few years ago (by outbidding GNC) to get a further foothold on the supplement market in the U.K. Well to solidify their dominance over the pond they’ve now just bought “Julian Graves” which is a chain of 350 food and confectionary stores in the U.K. The cost of the purchase was approximately $25 million USD. One has to wonder if NBTY’s next purchase will be GNC’s U.S. store chain?