Noriega Linked to Illegal Steroid Lab in Tijuana

Mexican and U. S. investigators have uncovered links between Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega and a Tijuana laboratory that has been charged with illegally producing huge volumes of body-building steroids for illicit sale in the United States, a U. S. prosecutor confirmed Thursday.

Phillip L. B. Halpern, the assistant U. S. attorney in San Diego who successfully prosecuted a series of steroid cases tied to the Tijuana laboratory, said he understands that Noriega had some kind of ownership interest in the laboratory, but he declined to be more specific.

He spoke after Mexican press reports quoted Mexican Atty. Gen. Enrique Alvarez del Castillo as saying that Noriega was the principal owner of the firm, known as Laboratorios Milano de Mexico.

Noriega is under indictment in the United States on drug-smuggling charges unrelated to steroids. Halpern said he could only be charged in connection with the Tijuana laboratory if it were proven that he had an interest and knew of the smuggling being done into the United States.

Mexican authorities conducted an extensive investigation of the facility that resulted, last April, in the shutdown of the laboratory, the seizure of large volume of drugs and the arrest of a dozen suspects, including a prominent professor of chemistry and a number of Americans.

Owner of Record a Fugitive

It was during that investigation, Halpern said, that Mexican officials uncovered information linking Noriega to the laboratory. U.S. officials cooperated in the inquiry.

Previously, Halpern said, U.S. investigators had also uncovered indications of Noriega’s involvement with the laboratory but had been unable to confirm it.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general in Mexico City declined to comment on the matter late Thursday. The attorney general is traveling in the United States with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Juan Javier Macklis, who U.S. authorities described as the owner of record of the laboratory, has been indicted on steroid-related charges by a federal grand jury in San Diego. He is a fugitive.

His son, also named Juan Macklis, was among those arrested by Mexican authorities in April. When arrested, the son claimed to be the owner of the firm, according to Mexican law enforcement officials. It was unclear whether the elder Macklis was ever formally charged in Mexico.

U.S. authorities charged that he and confederates produced counterfeit versions of the drugs--which are coveted by some body builders and other athletes--and packaged the pharmaceuticals with false labels, often forging the labeling used by legitimate drug companies such as Squibb and Ciba Geigy. U.S. officials charged that the printing of the bogus labels, along with the production and bottling of the steroids, was all done at the Milano plant, which is situated in the industrial Otay Mesa area, just a few feet from the U.S.-Mexican border.

Trained couriers smuggled the drugs into the United States, where a network of suppliers sold them throughout the nation, according to court papers. A large amount was also marketed in the farmacias of Tijuana, destination of many Americans interested in acquiring steroids and bringing them into the United States, where the sale of the substances is heavily restricted.

The drugs have been shown to have a range of potentially dangerous side effects, including liver damage, cancer and a heightened risk of heart disease.

For more than a year until at least mid-1987, Halpern said, the Tijuana laboratory was probably the largest single source of illegal steroids entering the U. S. market, producing millions of dollars worth of the substances for consumption north of the border.

The quality of the drugs produced varied widely, Halpern said, noting that there was no regulation of the production, as is required by both Mexican and U.S. law.

In May, 1987, federal indictments began to be issued against Juan Javier Macklis and a number of others allegedly associated with the ring. Among the more than 2 dozen indicted was David Jenkins, a former British Olympian sprinter who was described as a ringleader of the operation, along with Macklis. Jenkins was eventually convicted of steroid-related charges in U.S. District Court, as was every other person indicted except for Macklis and several Mexican confederates.