Boss of world’s biggest illegal steroid ring jailed after NI parcel intercepted
THE head of an international pharmaceutical firm has been jailed for heading up what is believed to be the world’s biggest ever illegal anabolic steroid distribution network.
Jacob Sporon-Fiedler (38), the CEO of Indian-based company Alpha Pharma, was caught trying to smuggle unlicensed drugs into Belfast.
A National Crime Agency investigation identified around 42 tonnes of importations of illicit anabolic steroids into the UK.
Investigators were able to directly link Sporon-Fiedler to around 16 tonnes of those imports with an estimated value of around £12m.
Sporon-Fiedler worked with a network of UK-based fixers, inwere
cluding Gurjaipal Dhillon (65) and Nathan Selcon (44). Dhillon and Selcon arranged dozens of unlicensed shipments of drugs from India into Europe and then distributing them.
The NCA probe began in 2014, following a seizure of around 600 kilos of the class C regulated drug by Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport. The load was destined for an address in Belfast.
Following that, NCA investigators began to piece together the movement of dozens of unlicensed shipments of drugs, many organised by Dhillon.
The illegally imported drugs, made by Sporon-Fiedler’s pharmaceutical firm in India, were shipped using Dhillon’s contacts. Once in the UK they would be distributed by Selcon to be sold on the black market to body builders and fitness fanatics.
Selcon also had links to two other men, Alexander MacGregor and Mohammed Afzal, who had set up a purpose built illicit steroid laboratory to manufacture their own branded drugs. Inside the labs raw powder would be converted into a liquid solution that could be injected and sold in vials.
Two such laboratories were identified. One operating on an industrial estate in Harmondsworth was raided and shut down by the NCA in March 2015.
Sporon-Fiedler had visited the facility shortly after being released on bail following his arrest at Heathrow airport.
Evidence indicated it had been running for around four years and officers found packaging and labelling for around £43m-worth of anabolic steroids.
NCA investigators were also able to prove links between the gang and another site in Slough which had produced steroids worth around £10m before it was raided by Thames Valley Police in Slough in 2009.
Selcon, Afzal and MacGregor found guilty of conspiring to manufacture steroids on April 4, following a two-month trial at the Old Bailey.
Dhillon was found guilty of conspiring to import steroids on June 5 following a separate trial. Sporon-Fiedler and Selcon had already admitted the charge.
On November 14, Selcon and Sporon-Fiedler were sentenced to six years and five years and four months respectively. On the same day, Dhillon was sentenced to five years and Afzal to two years in prison.
MacGregor will be sentenced at a later date.
NCA branch commander David Cunningham said: “This organised crime group was the most prolific of its kind ever uncovered, likely the biggest global players in the illicit anabolic steroid market.”