The owners of PHF Supplements, Celtic Labs and Purity Solutions are reportedly under active investigation by the DEA. The investigation started in 2012 and their home was raided earlier this year. They have previously been under DEA investigation as owners of Liquid Research in 2004.
DEA targets steroid ring said to be operating out of north shore warehouse
BY JIM MUSTIAN
DEC 23, 2016 - 4:45 PM
DEA targets steroid ring said to be operating out of north shore warehouse
BY JIM MUSTIAN
DEC 23, 2016 - 4:45 PM
Federal authorities have ramped up a four-year-old investigation into a local couple accused of running a large-scale anabolic steroid distribution ring out of a north shore warehouse.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided the couple's Mandeville home earlier this year and recently carried out a series of search warrants targeting the organization's online sales and social media accounts, according to federal court filings.
The couple, Edward and Natalie Barton, have been suspected of trafficking illegal steroids for more than a decade, having been arrested in 2004 in connection with what Jefferson Parish authorities described as the largest drug laboratory they had encountered.
Those charges ultimately were not pursued, and several years later, prosecutors in St. Tammany Parish similarly dropped a series of felony drug counts against Edward Barton.
The feds have not filed any charges in the current probe, said Arthur "Buddy" Lemann III, a veteran defense attorney who represents Natalie Barton.
"I think the DEA is on thin ice," Lemann said Friday, referring to the strength of the evidence. "We're not talking about heroin or cocaine. We're not even talking about marijuana. We're talking about body-building medicine."
The DEA suspects the Bartons and their associates have run afoul of several federal statutes governing the branding of drugs and the distribution of Schedule III substances — laws that have been circumvented at times by manufacturers who alter the chemical makeup of regulated anabolic steroids to create compounds known as analogues.
Anabolic steroids are synthetic variants of the hormone testosterone and are used by body-builders and athletes seeking to enhance their performance. Federal authorities have outlawed the substances because they can lead to serious health problems, are often mislabeled and are sometimes produced in unsanitary labs overseas.
The investigation into the Bartons began in October 2012 and has included undercover purchases of steroids, both online and in person, and the surveillance of a warehouse the couple used to manufacture, package and ship steroids around the globe, according to a search warrant.
The Bartons are suspected of ordering bulk powders from Shanghai, China, using that material to make analogue anabolic steroids and then selling the drugs around the United States, Great Britain and Australia.
"Pursuant to trash pulls, my team has recovered invoices and other documents showing shipments of these substances all over the world," Brian Phillips, a DEA task force officer, wrote in a 45-page application for the search warrant.
Natalie Barton is suspected of overseeing "all incoming shipments of bulk raw powder, whether she personally receives them at her home address or whether they are received by other members of the organization," the warrant says.
At one point, the investigation took agents to Salt Lake City, where they had the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory test more than a dozen substances secretly purchased from the Bartons.
The bulk of the organization's business appears to have been conducted online, including through some websites that are now defunct and an online forum the couple used to promote their products. But the feds also monitored a now-shuttered store called PHF Supplements that the Bartons ran on Veterans Boulevard in Metairie, a business accused of selling anabolic steroids in addition to other supplements.
Staff writer Faimon A. Roberts III contributed to this report.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided the couple's Mandeville home earlier this year and recently carried out a series of search warrants targeting the organization's online sales and social media accounts, according to federal court filings.
The couple, Edward and Natalie Barton, have been suspected of trafficking illegal steroids for more than a decade, having been arrested in 2004 in connection with what Jefferson Parish authorities described as the largest drug laboratory they had encountered.
Those charges ultimately were not pursued, and several years later, prosecutors in St. Tammany Parish similarly dropped a series of felony drug counts against Edward Barton.
The feds have not filed any charges in the current probe, said Arthur "Buddy" Lemann III, a veteran defense attorney who represents Natalie Barton.
"I think the DEA is on thin ice," Lemann said Friday, referring to the strength of the evidence. "We're not talking about heroin or cocaine. We're not even talking about marijuana. We're talking about body-building medicine."
The DEA suspects the Bartons and their associates have run afoul of several federal statutes governing the branding of drugs and the distribution of Schedule III substances — laws that have been circumvented at times by manufacturers who alter the chemical makeup of regulated anabolic steroids to create compounds known as analogues.
Anabolic steroids are synthetic variants of the hormone testosterone and are used by body-builders and athletes seeking to enhance their performance. Federal authorities have outlawed the substances because they can lead to serious health problems, are often mislabeled and are sometimes produced in unsanitary labs overseas.
The investigation into the Bartons began in October 2012 and has included undercover purchases of steroids, both online and in person, and the surveillance of a warehouse the couple used to manufacture, package and ship steroids around the globe, according to a search warrant.
The Bartons are suspected of ordering bulk powders from Shanghai, China, using that material to make analogue anabolic steroids and then selling the drugs around the United States, Great Britain and Australia.
"Pursuant to trash pulls, my team has recovered invoices and other documents showing shipments of these substances all over the world," Brian Phillips, a DEA task force officer, wrote in a 45-page application for the search warrant.
Natalie Barton is suspected of overseeing "all incoming shipments of bulk raw powder, whether she personally receives them at her home address or whether they are received by other members of the organization," the warrant says.
At one point, the investigation took agents to Salt Lake City, where they had the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory test more than a dozen substances secretly purchased from the Bartons.
The bulk of the organization's business appears to have been conducted online, including through some websites that are now defunct and an online forum the couple used to promote their products. But the feds also monitored a now-shuttered store called PHF Supplements that the Bartons ran on Veterans Boulevard in Metairie, a business accused of selling anabolic steroids in addition to other supplements.
Staff writer Faimon A. Roberts III contributed to this report.
