Federal agents on Thursday seized more than 40,000 doses of illegal anabolic steroids from a central New Jersey home they said was being used as a factory.
The manufacturing was done in the basement of the Sayreville home of Alfred Scarpa, an electrician who was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency, authorities said.
Scarpa, 34, admitted he was involved with buying, making and selling steroids, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. He was ordered held without bail.
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 declined to say whether others might be arrested in the continuing investigation.
Agents found large hand pumps attached to large brown glass bottles filled with liquid in the basement, and a centrifuge often used to make steroids was found in the garage, according to the DEA complaint.
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.
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, the DEA said.
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