Written by:

JEFFREY GOLD 

September 20, 2007

Drug enforcement agents on Thursday seized more than 40,000 doses of illegal anabolic steroids at a central New Jersey home they said was being used as a factory.

The manufacturing allegedly was done in the basement of the Sayreville home of Alfred Scarpa, an electrician who was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Scarpa, 34, admitted he was involved with buying, making and selling steroids, according to a DEA criminal complaint filed in federal court.

 He was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Esther Salas, pending a bail hearing on Tuesday.

A message seeking comment from Scarpa's lawyer was not immediately returned.

DEA agents also seized $56,000 and two semiautomatic handguns at the home, where the basement was filled with "tubs, bottles, vials," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kirsch said.

"Overwhelming evidence of an active, ongoing manufacturing laboratory for steroid production was blatant and in plain view," Kirsch said.

He said the investigation was continuing, but declined to say if others might be arrested.

Agents found large hand pumps attached to large brown glass bottles filled with liquid in the basement, while a centrifuge often used to make steroids was found in the garage, according to the DEA complaint filed against Scarpa.

Quantities of various chemicals were also seized, including vials of liquids labeled stanozolol, testosterone and nandrolone, the complaint said.

The raid came after the DEA obtained e-mails from Scarpa that showed he had been negotiating to buy steroid powder since at least April 2006, the complaint said.

The DEA also said that financial records dating to January 2005 revealed dozens of transactions in which Scarpa made wire transfers totaling at least $25,000 to businesses in Colonia and New Providence, some of which were suppliers of steroids.