mugzy
TID Board Of Directors
- Aug 11, 2010
- 4,876
- 1,800
A South County man called one “target” in a continuing drug investigation is now in the Montgomery County Jail on charges of possessing steroids to sell to bodybuilders, officials said.
James Joseph Hartnett, 30, of Spring, is being held on no bond on charges of third-degree and second-degree felony possession of a controlled substance after his arrest Thursday morning by members of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit.
SWAT members served a search warrant around 11:15 a.m. at a home in the 2100 block of Sawdust Road as part of the investigation targeting the manufacture and distribution of illegal human growth steroids and Montgomery and Harris counties.
“He’s one of the targets,” Lt. Phillip Cash, who heads the SIU, said of Hartnett. “We suspect him to be trafficking and a known associate of other targets.”
The apartment where Hartnett was arrested is located in a school zone, enhancing Hartnett’s charges because of the possession of controlled substances in a drug-free zone, Cash said.
The SIU arrested Woodlands resident Matthew Emilio Montano, 29, earlier this month and charged him with manufacturing illegal human growth hormone.
As in Montano’s arrest, SWAT members seized equipment and other components, including glass vials containing approximately 50 grams of suspected testosterone and other illegal growth hormones, along with numerous empty vials and counterfeit pharmaceutical labels used in the sale of the substances, Cash said.
The chemicals, which have an estimated street value of “several thousand dollars,” Cash said, have been sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s laboratory for analysis.
Members of the suspected drug ring allegedly sell the illegal steroids to bodybuilders “wanting to cheat the system,” Cash said.
Hartnett’s occupation is listed as a personal trainer.
Tips from parents of high school and college students who train at area gyms are helpful in the ongoing investigation, Cash said.
“It’s not over yet,” he said. “We like the tips. Keep those tips coming.”
