I was hoping you would coment on this thread, interesting and good stuff!
I'd agree on Duchaine is probably the first then
Yeah there's no way this thread could go without honorary mention of DD.
And it's pretty deep. The following is from a 1989 NY Times article. It's just a bit of entertaining trivia:
--Mexican and American officials say the main trafficker in steroids over the last three years has been Juan Macklis, owner of record of the Milano Pharmaceutical Laboratories here. They said he not only manufactured much of the drug in Tijuana, but also used a large network of couriers to take the drug across the border, often in false compartments of automobiles.
Evidence of Links to Noriega:
''Between 1987 and 1989, Laboratorios Milanos has been the largest single distributor of steroids in the U.S. marketplace and perhaps in the world,'' said Phillip Halpern, an assistant United States attorney in San Diego. ''I was arresting people of his who were trafficking in the ton-loads, so we are conservatively talking about a business that involved tens of millions of dollars.''
In April, the police here raided the laboratory and arrested Mr. Macklis. Several company employees, including Hector Salgado Herrera, chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Baja California, were also apprehended, as were two Americans who had just bought 4,900 steroid tablets from United Pharmaceuticals of Baja California, a Macklis-affiliated company that operates out of a hotel suite here.
A senior Government official in Mexico City said the Mexican police had uncovered evidence establishing a longstanding business relationship between Mr. Macklis and Panama's military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. ''Here in Mexico, Noriega is an owner of a pharmaceutical company in Tijuana that is poisoning people,'' the official said.
According to Mexican and American officials, however, Mr. Macklis was released from custody and has dropped out of sight.--
The (A) United Pharmaceuticals office front that's mentioned in the article was located in the Hotel Fiesta Americana in TJ. I don't know if the hotel still exists by the same name or not? Anyhow, it was a posh place back then (for TJ). It's where I use to make my stock runs back in the mid 80's. Prices and quality at that time were insane - legit products for pennies on the dollar wholesale. Juan Maklis (and the ex Panamanian cocaine smuggling general Manuel Noriega who worked for many years for the US CIA), and Duchaine were "business partners". Duchaine actually handled the AAS side of things, and Maklis (nickname was "Fito", pronounced feet-o) handled cocaine smuggling for Noriega throughout mexico and into cali, tx, and az. It's said that Noriega invested a minimum 800k into the AAS operation. Duchaine was actually fortunate to get out of that connection easily as he did. Fito's (Maklis) son was murdered in a drug related incident there in mex, and shortly after, Fito was murdered as well. And of course, Noriega's Panama was invaded in 1989 and he was taken into custody in 1990, and still remains in prison today in Paris France.
