Dirico reportedly transformed a room in his Somerville apartment into a lab to make the steroids. He previously lived on Summer Street in Arlington, and police said also possessed a lab at that residence. Police, in fact, charged Dirico with the school zone violation because of his former Summer Street residence’s close proximity to Peirce School.

“Given the reported high use of steroids among athletes, we’re happy to have this distributor of steroids in our custody,” said Police Chief Fred Ryan Monday.

After the arrest, investigators searched the first-floor Somerville residence and found hundreds of vials of steroids, and other drug-making materials, such as oils, powders, labels and syringes. Police preliminary believe they recovered at least $10,000 worth of steroids.

Dirico allegedly received shipments of drug ingredients from China at his Arlington post office box, which is also where he also sent packages to his clients.

 He was manufacturing (steroids) in his apartment,” said Arlington Investigator Brian Connerney, who handled the Internet portion of the investigation while Investigator James Fitzpatrick dealt with the “foot” part of the work.

Dirico, who was once an Information Technology person for the Somerville Public Schools, ran a mail-order business through a Web site by using Paypal. His e-mail account was through a Canadian/British company that police said is not open to providing investigators information, such as who bought from Dirico. Connerney said the suspect also sold via eBay Arlington police started the investigation after a tip about Dirico’s Internet business last September. Local police brought the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Agency on board to help with the investigation.

On Monday afternoon, police laid out the hundreds of pieces of evidence confiscated from Dirico’s Somerville apartment. The vials, needles, powders and numerous other drug-related materials filled three-and-a-half long conference tables at the Community Safety Building.

In addition to steroids, other drugs like Cialis was found at Dirico’s residence. Connerney said male-enhancement drugs like Cialis are used to open blood vessels when people are shooting testosterone, such as steroids.

The case remains under investigation, and police are hoping to track down some of Dirico’s clients.