Global sports drug business kingpin operates from India pharma company, claims German TV channel which had broken Russian doping story
Sports Drug India: A documentary made by a reputed German TV channel ARD has claimed that, a kingpin in the global sports…
Sports Drug India: A documentary made by a reputed German TV channel ARD has claimed that, a kingpin in the global sports drug business operates his business from his Mumbai-based pharma company Alpha Pharma. From there, he “illegally” distributes prohibited substances to other parts of the world. Jacob Sporon-Fiedler, who lives in India, illegally imported anabolic steroids into European and planned the operation with his Mumbai-based company Alpha Pharma. A report in www.sportschau.de, the sports webpage of ARD said that Alpha Pharma is a major player in a growing global drugs industry. Follow InsideSport.IN for Latest Sports News Updates.
After serving his jail sentance, ARD has found how Jacob Sporon Fiedler returned to Mumbai and continued the same business.
He was secretly filmed and recorded (with help from some excellent Indian colleagues) again offering to sell steroids into Europe in huge quantities. 4/ pic.twitter.com/693Tfgdo7t
— Nick Butler (@NickJMButler) March 31, 2023
Sports Drug India: Stepanov the whistle blower
ARD first reported in December 2014 allegations of systematic doping in Russian athletics, through whistle blowers Vitaly Stepanov, a former Russian Anti-Doping Agency official, and his wife Yulia, an 800m runner, which ultimately led to the ban of the Russian track federation in 2015.
The documentary titled “Doping Top Secret: DEALER”, was the work of noted reporter Von Hajo Seppelt, who had first reported the Russian doping story, and three other journalists.
Seppelt and his team travelled around the world — from India, Denmark and Singapore to Northern Ireland, Poland and Paraguay — in an under cover investigation lasting over two years to unearth “a unique inside view of an international doping trade, with estimated annual turnover of around 15 billion euros”.
Sports Drugs India: ARD report on Alpha Pharma and Sporon-Fiedler’s part in the drug operation
“In the Indian port-city of Mumbai the ARD team found potential partners for producing doping substances and their illegal distribution in the European market. The journalists also received indications that Sporon-Fiedler was again involved in the doping business,” the report said.
“ARD’s team then paid him a visit under a false identity and, using hidden cameras, ordered doping substances to be delivered to Germany. After Sporon-Fiedler successfully had them delivered illegally, it was clear: he was back in business.”
According to the report, one of those who distributed Alpha Pharma products in Germany was Andre Boge, a former soldier who earlier “set up his own doping business from Lower Saxony and earned thousands of euros per week”.
John McLaughlin, a long-time investigator with the UK’s National Crime Agency and who arrested Sporon-Fiedler in 2018, said much of the business with … sports fraud works far too easily.
“The days of people robbing a bank with a shotgun are gone, smart guys sit in their office in Mumbai and have people on the end of their BlackBerry doing stuff all over the world. And they make lots of money. The risk of them going to jail? Very low,” he said.
