Brooklyn's Steroid-Peddling Mom-And-Pop Shop
On May 9, narcotics investigators [seized a reported $200,000 in illegal steroids] from Lowens Compounding, an unassuming Bay Ridge pharmacy. According to Albany Assistant District Attorney Christopher Baynes, these included growth hormones and testosterone imported from China that were very much not FDA-approved. Even as agents were raiding the place, [a fax machine hummed away](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/05/10/2007-05-10_200g_worth_of_steroids_found.html), spitting out a hundred new orders for the drugs. Baynes expects to find the names of professional athletes in the many pages of client information they confiscated. Lowens was also allegedly mixing the powerful anabolic steroid Stanozolol in-house. It all started when Albany District Attorney David Soares began investigating an interstate scheme to sell anti-aging drugs over the Internet. The long arm of the law reached all the way to Orlando, Florida, where, in February, it [raided the Signature Pharmacy](http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-steroids2807feb28,0,1633509.story). Lowens reportedly picked up Signatures drug-dealing slack after it stopped doing business. The plot, and greased-up muscles, thicken, when one looks at some of the more peripheral characters in the case. Now, movie producer Julius Nasso, who owns the building that houses Lowens and whose son has a stake in the pharmacy, hasnt been directly implicated in the Brooklyn bust, but can it be a coincidence that Mr. Nasso [did time for a year ](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/05/13/2007-05-13_brooklyn_steroid_raid_points_to_mob_tie.html)for, along with his buddies in the Gambino crime family, attempting to extort $3 million from none other than professional muscleman Steven Segal? At any rate, patrons of Lowen's (which is still in business) who wish to imitate Segal's physique without joining a gym will now have to shop elsewhere.
Photo courtesy of [runs brooklyn on flickr ]