Authorities Uncover Steroid Drug Dealing Conspiracy

December 11, 2006

CATONSVILLE, Md. -- Federal authorities say a personal trainer at a Glen Burnie fitness club imported thousands of vials and tablets of illicit muscle enhancers from overseas and sold them throughout the Baltimore region and on the Internet.

Michael Schlanger, 47, of Catonsville, was indicted in federal court in September on conspiracy to distribute to distribute anabolic steroids. Authorities said he could face up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted.

The break in the case occurred this summer when officials seized shipments at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and found a stash of about 40,000 vials and tablets of anabolic steroids from a storage locker in the suburban Baltimore.

Federal officials said the stash was one of the largest found in the region.

"It's unprecedented, as far as we're concerned," said Floyd Pond, deputy director of the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force program.

Ed Marcinko, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Baltimore, agreed.

Andrew Alperstein, Schlanger's defense lawyer, said Friday that he and his client had no comment on the charges. Schlanger has been released pending trial, Alperstein said. A trial date has not been set.

Court documents allege Schlanger, an employee at Bally Total Fitness in Glen Burnie, imported tens of thousands of vials and tablets of the muscle-building drugs through the mail for resale.

The conspiracy came to light in July when customs agents at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York intercepted packages of steroids addressed to "County Crafts." One package was from China, another was from Great Britain.

Assisted by Anne Arundel County police, federal authorities set up a "controlled delivery" of the packages at a UPS store in Severna Park, arresting Pierre R. Gumucio and his girlfriend, Rachael Ann Martin when they arrived to retrieve the packages, officials said.

Inside their car were bags of clear glass vials of suspected steroids, orange pills and a book marked "ANABOLIC," court documents showed.

Gumucio told investigators that he worked for Schlanger, receiving two to three packages a week for him from China over the past couple of years and wiring overseas payments for the drugs on Schlanger's behalf, court documents said.