SAINT-PIERRE / LE TAMPON. Yesterday morning, the gendarmes of the Saint-Denis research section made a major catch in the small body of bodybuilding in the south of the island. Six suspects, including a graduate and titled coach, were placed in police custody. They are suspected of being at the head of a juicy traffic in doping products with devastating effects.
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The Covid-19 crisis caught the gendarmes of the Saint-Denis research section who had planned their haul on the occasion of the Reunion IFBB bodybuilding championship, initially scheduled for March in Stella Matutina (Saint -Leu). The competition – if it had taken place – would have been the occasion of a joint operation of the Réunion anti-doping agency and investigators launched in the footsteps of a significant traffic in doping products.
Finally, the gendarmes took action in the towns of Saint-Pierre and Le Tampon, yesterday morning. About fifty soldiers arrested six people suspected of having played an active role in the southern network, organized as drug trafficking. There are the nurses who keep the illicit products at home, those who send them by post and those who resell them under the cloak.
VIALS AT 400 EUROS AND SEIZED CARS
The headliner of this juicy traffic is a graduate coach, himself a former competitor. Alan Debese, vice-champion of the Indian Ocean in 2009 and IFBB champion of La Réunion in 2014, is also the manager of a health food store “Warrior Nutrishop”, backed by the fitness room “Fit Evasion 400” . It serves as a showcase and workspace, even if it has nothing to do with management.
The muscle man in chief, passionate about big cars, was arrested at his villa. Investigators took the opportunity to seize two gleaming Mercedes and a Vmax-type motorcycle as criminal assets. During the various searches, they discovered a large quantity of illicit products like anabolic steroids intended to gain muscle mass, anticatabolisants for fat loss and diuretics to dry the skin, that is to say draw the veins and highlight the muscles.
HORSE TREATMENT AND VETERINARY PRODUCTS
Medicines diverted from their use have also been updated such as anti-cancer treatments, anti-sterility or those intended for the treatment of the thyroid which boost the production of hormones. Worse, he has been seized with veterinary products such as those commonly injected into cattle. Syringes, essential utensils for administering certain products, complete the terrible panoply.
These poisonous substances, prohibited by law, have allowed bodybuilders to gain muscle mass beyond reason to shine with all their bodies on local podiums. The horse remedies offered sometimes held in vials sold between 300 and 400 euros the dose that the bodybuilder only had to inject. Sometimes again, these were prohibited products ready to ingest. “Often all their savings go there at the rate of 2 to 3000 euros per month”, comments a connoisseur. Without necessarily knowing all the dangerousness.
A CULTURIST WITH LODGE SYNDROME
To be at the top in competitions, the victims of the network were not satisfied with lifting iron all day long. Caught in an infernal gear, the followers of the perfect body could find what was done best and most dangerous in doping products in the underground pharmacy of Alan Debese and his acolytes. Who could count on dozens of professional or semi-professional bodybuilders to buy their merchandise. Which suggests how successful the small business was.
“The victims are obviously consenting, obsessed with seeking maximum muscle gain. The problem is that these products cause cardiac and respiratory damage. Sometimes also, muscles and tendons burst”, comments a specialist. To be part of the big leagues, a local bodybuilder consumed without counting the products sold under the counter by traffickers. For her, the horse doses for the inflator ended in a very serious condition, the compartment syndrome. This manifests itself by excessive pressure from the muscle cells causing them to burst. The victim, already operated on half a dozen times, suffered martyrdom. She could even lose the use of one of her legs.
At the end of the 48 hours of police custody, the main players in the traffic should be presented to the investigating magistrate of Saint-Pierre with the possibility of a rather muscular indictment.
Eric Lainé
[email protected]
The dangers of doping in bodybuilders
Bodybuilding, popularized in the 80s by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a closed and controversial environment whose athletes are masters in the art of excessive muscle performance. To shine on the stage, PEI bodybuilders are, like everywhere else, ready to do anything to outdo themselves, even if they want to shoot like competitive bulls. Melting, a diet rich in protein, essential nutrients and caloric intake … everything is good for losing water, fat and drying until thirsty. Adepts also inject horse doses of drugs classified as psychotropic, sold at high prices by unscrupulous traffickers.
Among the most commonly used banned products are chemical syntheses of testosterone, better known as anabolic steroids. This male hormone, combined with the ingestion of natural proteins such as meats or artificial proteins such as food supplements, stimulates muscle growth.
The risks involved are not negligible since they can lead to the appearance of edema. In women, there is a risk of temporal baldness, the appearance of bushy eyebrows, clitoral hypertrophy with a hoarse voice and a skinny libido. For men, sperm production is affected and the breasts can swell conspicuously. Ultimately, the list of health risks is long such as death … liver cancer, myocardial infarction, high blood pressure, diabetes, sterility, muscle ruptures …
To these chemicals, traffickers associate drugs dedicated to serious pathologies in humans but also veterinary products like Clenbuterol. Cocktails that present a great danger in terms of public health such as compartment syndrome, responsible for mutilation that is sometimes irreversible.
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