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Italian police break up ring they say was sending steroids to troops in Iraq

Jul-19-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes

Italian police have busted an international drug ring that had been sending steroids and performance-enhancing drugs to U.S. soldiers in Iraq who, Italian investigators say, were ordering them via the Internet.

But for unknown reasons — possibly security precautions — the packages and envelopes of drugs were not reaching some of the troops, said Mario Bo, head of the criminal division for the Trieste, Italy, police department. [...]

Unit leaders and soldiers contacted in Iraq said the issue was news to them.

“We do not have this problem in Deuce Four,” Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, commander for 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, now serving in Mosul, said in an e-mail. “We do 100 percent health and welfare checks often, basically lock down a unit and go through everything looking for anything illegal. We have never found drugs or steroids.

“I have heard of only a few cases of drugs in other battalions supplied by interpreters, but this has never surfaced in Deuce Four. Our mail clerk also handles every package that arrives in the battalion and he has not seen strange European addresses either.” [...]


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