With a PED Dealer with Ties to MLB Admitting Wrongdoing, Are Athletes Going to Be Charged Next?

A ringleader in one of Major League Baseball's largest drug scandals in history has admitted to a criminal distribution charge for illegally doping professional athletes and high school students.

The ringleader, Anthony Bosch, along with six other men—including Alex Rodriguez's "Cousin Yuri," who helped the baseball star with his steroid use—have been accused by the government of using the now-infamous Biogenesis anti-aging clinics as a legitimizing front for illegal performance enhancing drug (PED) sale and distribution.

"As in so many drug cases, the defendants were motivated by money," US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said. "The defendants were exploiting the pressures to be bigger, stronger, faster, and play better, not furthering their dreams."

Charging between $250 and $600 a month, Bosch and his co-conspirators targeted teenagers between 15 and 17 years old, both in the Dominican Republic, where they had set up an MLB recruiting business, and in South Florida. "They would advise the youngsters that the drugs make them play better, run faster, and recover from injuries," Ferrer said.

Bosch admitted to administering illegal PEDs to at least 18 minors, the majority of whose parents were present when Bosch administered the drugs.

Bosch often pretended to be a doctor in order to gain trust from the athletes—both the teenagers and professionals—introducing himself as "Doctor T," according to Bosch's plea agreement. "He's not a doctor, he's a drug dealer," said DEA agent Mark Trouville.

While MLB players have for years been under scrutiny for drug use from the government, and fans—many of whom may not give a damn about ball players' doping—the thought that such drugs are introduced to teenagers across the country is troubling.

"What about elsewhere around the country?" said Steve Drumwright, the San Francisco Examiner's managing editor. "And how many lower-level PED distributors are out there? Kind of scary if you think about it."

That number is easily within the hundreds of thousands, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics back in 2012, which said about one in 20 teenagers have used PEDs.

Concern over underage use of PEDs is well justified, as the negative consequences of early use for substances obtained on the black market can be more serious than adult consumption.

But there are risks to professional athletes using PEDs too, and dozens have been suspended from MLB play for testing positive for steroids and testosterone use.

Although the government didn't include any MLB players in the conspiracy charges, there's been widespread speculation that several of the defendants—including Bosch, Yuri Sucart (A-Rod's cousin), and former ACES agency employee Juan Carlos Nunez—will drag professional athletes into the investigation. Nunez was previously involved in a plot to absolve All-Star MVP Melky Cabrera for a positive testosterone test while playing for the San Francisco Giants in 2012.

"There probably are going to be a bunch of guys who are worried now that the feds are involved,'' Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant told USA Today. Radomski was one of the star witnesses in the Mitchell report, and also admitted to doping-related crimes back in 2007.

Despite the DEA's mission of going after drug trafficking organizations, not the users, Radomski still believes that it's possible more MLB players could be implicated—despite the fact that the league already had access, via a civil lawsuit that was ultimately dropped last year, to all of Bosch's records at the clinic. "But you never know if any new names come up."

When questioned about ties to Major League Baseball, agent Trouville said that they weren't ruling anyone out at this point, "We'll go where the evidence leads us."

According to the feds Bosch charged professional athletes $12,000 a month to participate in his doping scheme. In exchange for the cash, Bosch created a player specific program that usually involved injectable shots, sublingual troches (also known as gummies or gummy bears), and creams.

Described by the government as a separate cell from the doping conspiracy, three other men are being accused of trafficking and distributing 3,4-Methylenedioxy-N-Methylcathinone Hydrochloride (MDMA), also known as ecstasy. The DEA discovered the additional distribution ring while investigating Bosch and his alleged co-conspirators.

PEDs are Schedule III narcotics, and a distribution charge such as the one Bosch and others are facing, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The two-year investigation into the alleged doping ring is ongoing, according to the DEA.

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