N.Y. steroids investigators target Brooklyn pharmacy

NEW YORK — A Brooklyn pharmacy targeted in a state steroids investigation transformed itself from an old-fashioned neighborhood druggist to a national supplier of substances used to enhance athletic performance, according to investigators and court records.

Investigators with the state health department's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement said they seized $7.5 million of dollars worth of human growth hormone and anabolic steroids on Monday and Tuesday from Lowen's Pharmacy, a decades-old shop in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge section.

The pharmacy's vice president, Edward Letendre, was arrested during the raid. Police initially planned to charge him with diverting controlled substances, but he was released by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office and has not been charged in the case.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the move, other than to say that the case would be presented to a grand jury.

It is not illegal in New York for a pharmacy to dispense steroids and human growth hormone for valid medical purposes, but it is a crime for a doctor to prescribe drugs without examining the patient.

State health officials said the raid was an offshoot of the Albany County District Attorney's investigation into Signature Pharmacy, an Orlando, Fla., company whose client lists reportedly included many professional athletes.

The District Attorney's office has been investigating illegal steroid sales for two years, targeting Signature and several distributors who used the Internet to sell prescription drugs to clients who never saw a doctor.

Lowen's already had been raided once in connection with the probe. In May, state officials seized about $200,000 worth of potentially performance-enhancing drugs during a regulatory inspection there, most of which had been shipped to the United States from China.

Pharmacy lawyer Paul Aufrichtig said the shop was cooperating with investigators and denied that its steroid and hormone sales amounted to a criminal enterprise. "Nobody has done anything illegal, to my knowledge," he said Wednesday.

Law enforcement agents wouldn't say whether the pharmacy might face charges or disciplinary action.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares said that after Signature was raided and shut down in February, as many as five "wellness centers" that had relied on the Orlando company for drugs turned to other suppliers, including Lowen's.

"Lowen's came on our radar very early on," he said Wednesday. "The other five who now lost their source of supply approached Lowen's and were dealing with Lowen's, so we were on to Lowen's as well."

Even before the raids, the Brooklyn pharmacy already had an unusual pedigree.