Arrest Made in Largest Steroid Raid in County : Thousand Oaks: The seizure includes 250,000 doses, scales, guns, $30,000 and 800 empty medicine bottles. A vitamin salesman is held.

A mail-order vitamin salesman was arrested Saturday after more than 250,000 doses of anabolic steroids were seized from his Thousand Oaks residence, authorities said.

Officials said it was the largest such seizure in Ventura County history.

Lawrence Woods, 43, was arrested Saturday evening on suspicion of possession of dangerous drugs and possession of dangerous drugs for sale, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Pentis said. Bail was set at $10,000.

Federal, state and local agents seized steroid capsules and powder when they raided Woods’ residence at 9:40 p.m. Friday, Pentis said. They also found a respirator worn to protect chemists from hazardous substances, electronic scales, more than 800 empty medicine bottles, four automatic handguns and $30,000 in cash, Pentis said.

Authorities also found 27,600 tablets of an unknown substance and the anesthetic procaine, which is illegal without a prescription, Pentis said.

Pentis said the seizure was one of the largest in the state. He said the Sheriff’s Department has had about five anabolic steroid cases this year, but none have approached the magnitude of Friday’s seizure.

Local authorities were asked to join the multi-state investigation by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Eleven representatives from the Sheriff’s Department, the Food and Drug Administration and the state Department of Health Services raided Woods’ residence.

The suspect’s cook and maid, the only people at the house in the upper middle-class suburban neighborhood, were interviewed and released after telling deputies that Woods, who markets his own line of vitamins through magazines, was out of town.

But Woods returned to the residence in the 600 block of Shenandoah Street after detectives had completed their inventory of the house about 6 a.m. Saturday, Pentis said. After deputies determined that he was in the house, Woods was arrested without incident about 7 p.m. and was scheduled to be taken to the East Valley Jail in Thousand Oaks, Pentis said.

In October, Ventura County sheriff’s narcotics detectives seized 410 marijuana plants worth $820,000 at another house about a block away.

Non-medical use of anabolic steroids is illegal. Athletes, however, sometimes use the drugs to increase muscle mass, strength and training capacity. The drugs--synthetic derivatives of the male hormone testosterone--have been linked to numerous health problems, including sterility, increased cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, liver damage, increased irritability and even violent behavior.

A study released in September by the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 262,000 students nationwide in grades seven through 12 have used steroids, based on a survey conducted last year by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Also, people who use anabolic steroids sometimes become as dependent on the hormones as addicts are on narcotics, according to other published reports.

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said use of the drug has dropped off with news of its negative effects on health. But he said a market for the drug still exists.

“We’re aware there used to be a significant use of metabolic steroids,” Bradbury said. “It would probably be naive to think it hasn’t continued to some degree.”

David Burton, manager of Powerhouse Gym in Oxnard, expressed surprise at the seizure, saying that bodybuilders can still get steroids easily in Tijuana.

Burton, who said he held a lifetime prescription when steroid usage was legal, said he believes the use of the bodybuilding drug is now rare among his customers.

Times staff writer Christopher Reynolds contributed to this report.