Sacramento Gym Owner Arrested on Steroid Charge

A gym owner who lectured high school students about the dangers of using anabolic steroids is facing charges of possessing steroids for sale.

Bill Cambra, owner of the Body and Power Health Club and a Sacramento body-building champion, was arrested last month on the possession charges.

Anabolic steroids have become popular among athletes for muscle building, but state law makes possession or sale of steroids illegal.

Steroids have some legitimate medical uses in small doses. However, steroid abuse has been linked to cancer, kidney aliments, heart attacks, impotence, strokes and psychotic behavior.

Cambra told the Sacramento Bee that he used steroids over 10 years to build himself up from 165 to 265 pounds. He said he stopped using steroids six months ago and denied ever selling them.

But in a Superior Court affidavit filed by Matt Campoy, a state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agent, says he obtained information from four sources that Cambra was involved in the distribution of “large amounts” of steroids, the Bee said Sunday.

Court affidavits also say that when investigators opened a storage locker used by a Santa Monica man they found 68 boxes of steroids bearing the return address of Cambra’s gym in Carmichael, a Sacramento suburb.

Cambra’s attorney said the boxes may have been left over from shipments of vitamins.

Cambra says people are making up stories about him. “There are a lot of things being said and I would imagine that these are being said by individuals who are in trouble and are hoping they can throw the heat on someone else,” he said.