248 Cops Tied to a Single Source of Illegal Steroids

At least in New Jersey, there are some cops who really have used illegal steroids. The Newark (New Jersey) Star-Ledger reported that a single doctor in Jersey City, named Joseph Calao, supplied illegal steroids to policemen from 53 different squads.

In 2005, Dr. Calao was a medical practitioner in deep financial trouble. According to the Star-Ledger, he had had to have heart bypass surgery at the age of 38. His pain treatment practice was at the point of closure, when suddenly he had bookings for appointments running months ahead and he started buying $2,000 meals in Manhattan.

The Star-Ledger reports that Lowen's Pharmacy in Brooklyn, New York had acquired vast supplies of illegally imported steroids from China and was looking for a place to sell them. The only way to sell the drugs legally was with a doctor's prescription. Lowen's sent customers to Calao, and Calao sent customers back to Lowen's. Dr. Calao was paid in boxes of human growth hormone, which typically retails for up to $10,000 for a week's supply.

Within two years, the doctor's office had become a hangout for policemen and firefighters from up to 100 miles (160 km) away. Fourteen Hudson County jailers came for drugs. Twenty-seven fire fighers came from Jersey City. Sixteen came from the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and eighteen came from the Passaic Police Department. Altogether, 248 law enforcement and public safety officers, all of them male, relied on Dr. Calao for illegal cocktails of testosterone, human growth hormone, human chorionic gonadotrophin, and a drug called stanozolol, which has an a very important advantage over testosterone: a man's body will not convert excess stanozolol into estrogen so he grows "man boobs."

A well-known side effect of illegal steroids is aggressive behavior, and Calao's operation was uncovered when seven of his patients were themselves arrested for police brutality. Dr. Calao, however, died of hardening of the arteries in 2007. Calao's death caused his whole operation to unravel, but was this a purely local phenomenon?