Jacob Sporon-Fiedler, the founder and chief executive officer of Alpha-Pharma Healthcare (Alpha Pharma), was arrested by police at the London Heathrow Airport on March 26, 2018. Sporon-Fiedler was booked at the London Heathrow Police Station and charged with conspiracy to import and export a controlled class C drug (anabolic steroids). He appeared in Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court to face the charges on March 27, 2018.
The arrest of Sporon-Fiedler comes after a four-year investigation by the UK National Crime Agency (formerly the Serious Organised Crime Agency). The investigation was triggered by the seizure of over 630 kilograms of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) by UK Border Force agents in 2014. The ongoing investigation has resulted in the seizure of an estimated street value of £30 million. The shipment was destined for Belfast.
The UK seizure was not the first time that large quantities of Alpha Pharma steroids were seized by customs in Europe. Customs in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and probably several other countries have made seizures on a smaller scale.
The identity of Sporon-Fiedler as the man behind Alpha Pharma has been well-known by law enforcement officers for several years. In addition, Sporon-Fiedler’s involvement has also been a matter of public knowledge for over five years. Sporon-Fiedler has done little to hide his involvement. He identifies himself as an “entrepreneur and pharmaceutical executive” on various social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. He also used his legal name in all government registrations involving Alpha Pharma.
Sporon-Fiedler and Alpha Pharma were the subject of a major investigative journalism expose by Christian Heide-Jørgensen and Jeppe Laursen Brock published in the Danish newspaper Politiken in November 2012. The journalists questioned the potential involvement by Sporon-Fiedler in the rampant pharmaceutical diversion of Alpha Pharma products for black market doping purposes in Europe.
Heide-Jørgensen and Brock traced the origins of Alpha Pharma to a record in the Danish Company Register. The record identified Sporon-Fiedler as the registrant of “Alpha Pharma Group” founded on February 22, 2005 in Denmark. The entry described the company as “engaged in wholesale trade in pharmaceuticals and medical products”.
Alpha Pharma Group’s sister company, Alpha Pharma Healthcare, was founded in Mumbai, India a few months later. According to the Indian Companies Registration, Sporon-Fiedler and two additional co-founders filed the registration in December 2005. One of the co-founders dropped out soon after its founding. The third co-founder eventually left the company after 5 years under much less desirable circumstances.
Sporon-Fiedler has watched at least one of his partners and Alpha Pharma co-founders go to prison for their involvement is steroid trafficking. Danish bodybuilder Sten Lorentzen was one of the original Alpha Pharma Healthcare co-founders. However, Lorentzen was pushed out of the company after he was arrested in possession of 120,472 steroid pills and ampules bearing the Alpha Pharma name back home in Denmark in February 2010. Lorentzen was sentenced to six months in prison.
The Danish registration for the “Alpha Pharma Group” was dissolved on January 14, 2008. The “Alpha Pharma Group” company was moved to an offshore banking and tax haven well-known for privacy – Seychelles. The “Alpha Pharma Healthcare” company registration in India has remained active and current since its founding in December 2005.
In spite of everything that was known about Sporon-Fiedler’s involvement in Alpha Pharma Healthcare, Sporon-Fiedler apparently still felt comfortably traveling back and forth from his primary residence in India to Denmark a few times per year. We do not know his reasons for traveling through the United Kingdom. Perhaps he was simply making a transfer at the London Heathrow Airport. At any rate, the trip put him within the easy reach of UK law enforcement authorities.
Mumbai-based Danish international Jacob Sporon-Fiedler, aged 37, is due to appear at court today after being charged in connection with the seizure of more than 630 kilos of anabolic steroids and prescription medicines https://t.co/mblYBa4UMM pic.twitter.com/AOF0P4mL64
— National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) March 27, 2018
Source:
NCA. (March 26, 2018). Man charged in relation to alleged international anabolic steroid smuggling network. Retrieved from nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/1318-man-charged-in-relation-to-alleged-international-anabolic-steroid-smuggling-network
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.