Muscle Men: 3. Get Ripped. Quick

Summary

Extreme Muscle Men: Episode 3 - "Get Ripped. Quick"

Introduction

In the gripping third episode of BBC's Extreme Muscle Men, host Natalia Melman Petruzella delves deep into the shadowy world of anabolic steroid trafficking during the mid-1980s. Titled "Get Ripped. Quick," this episode uncovers the intricate web spun by key figures aiming to revolutionize the bodybuilding and athletic landscapes by pushing the boundaries of human performance. Through meticulous storytelling, rich with firsthand accounts and historical context, listeners are taken on a journey from the pristine Olympic tracks to the clandestine operations fueling the steroid boom.

David Jenkins: From Olympic Athlete to Steroid Pioneer

The episode centers around David Jenkins, a former world-class sprinter and Olympic medalist who transitions from athlete to a pivotal player in the steroid trade. Jenkins' journey begins with his illustrious athletic career, marked by his silver medal performance at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

[03:07] David Jenkins: "Well now that's a good split."

Despite his success, Jenkins faces a moral and professional crossroads. Initially resisting the allure of performance-enhancing drugs, the increasing dominance of steroid-using competitors pushes him to reevaluate his stance.

[06:02] Michael Cohen: "If you're just a fast kid and the sport selects you and you end up rising up the ranks, I mean, there's going to be a decision no matter what."

Jenkins decides to embrace steroids, not just as a user but as a facilitator, aiming to help other athletes navigate the burgeoning demand for performance enhancers.

The 1983 Pan American Games: A Turning Point

A significant portion of the episode recounts the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela, which served as a catalyst for heightened awareness and crackdowns on steroid use in sports. The introduction of advanced drug testing methods, specifically gas chromatography mass spectrometry, led to widespread disqualifications and a media-fueled scandal.

[14:40] Daniel Rosenki: "They sent us back all as one team and we left at nighttime, late at night and left, got out of Dodge."

This scandal exposed the rampant use of steroids among athletes and highlighted the pressures they faced to perform, setting the stage for the subsequent underground steroid market.

The Rise of Steroid Trafficking: Jenkins, Dillon, and Duchene

Post-scandal, Jenkins partners with William Dillon and Dan Duchene, two ambitious figures from the bodybuilding scene, eager to exploit the black market for steroids. Their collaboration aims to establish a vertically integrated supply chain, ensuring a steady and covert influx of steroids into the American market.

[21:06] William Dillon: "David's saying, well, let's do it, and we'll label it like this. And we'll do this. We'll do this."

Their plan involves counterfeiting existing steroid products, manipulating dosages, and creating a network that can evade legal repercussions while meeting the insatiable demand among athletes and bodybuilders.

Manufacturing and Smuggling: Creating an International Ring

The trio's operations extend beyond mere distribution. They engage with international pharmaceutical contacts, such as Laboratorios Milanos in Mexico, to manufacture counterfeit steroids like Diana Ball, deca-durabolin, and oxandrolone. The episode details their sophisticated smuggling techniques, including concealing steroids in specially designed clothing and vehicles to bypass border inspections.

[25:18] William Dillon: "To get into the country. They actually had smugglers that would. They had things in their pants that they would just fill with pills."

This clandestine approach not only ensures a steady supply but also maintains the ring's secrecy, allowing them to dominate the market without immediate legal challenges.

Ethical Implications and the Future of Steroid Use

Throughout the episode, Petruzella underscores the ethical dilemmas surrounding steroid use in sports. The transformation of sportsmanship into a battlefield for pharmacological enhancement raises questions about the true cost of achieving "superhuman" status.

[16:20] Daniel Rosenki: "It is the absolute turning point because up until then it was a dirty held secret to where it's now out in the open. You know, people are now starting to talk about anabolic steroids."

As the episode concludes, listeners are left contemplating the ramifications of steroid trafficking on both individual athletes and the broader sporting world, setting the stage for future explorations in the next installment of Extreme Muscle Men.

Notable Quotes

• William Dillon [01:04]: "Being around David is like being around a cottontail. You know what a cottontail is? It's a rabbit. It's a wild rabbit, right? His body's always moving. I don't think I ever saw him eat anything but salads."

• David Jenkins [03:30]: "The time is irrelevant, really. It's just if you beat him or you don't beat him."

• Michael Cohen [06:53]: "I'm at an impasse right now, and I have to make a decision. It's go to the dark side, so to speak, or admit to yourself that I wasn't going to be in the Olympics."

• William E. Simon [16:45]: "He made it clear that the Olympic Committee did not tolerate steroid use and said the athletes had been warned time and time again."

Conclusion

"Get Ripped. Quick" offers a comprehensive look into the intersection of ambition, ethics, and illicit trade within the realm of bodybuilding and athletics. By weaving personal narratives with historical context, Natalia Melman Petruzella provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of the forces that propelled anabolic steroids from the shadows into mainstream sports. As the episode closes, anticipation builds for the ensuing consequences that these early pioneers of steroid trafficking will face, promising an enthralling continuation in the next episode of Extreme Muscle Men.

Transcript

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

BBC Sounds Music Radio podcasts. Episodes of Extreme Muscle Men are released on Mondays, wherever you get your podcasts. But if you're in the uk, you can listen to the latest episode a week ahead first on BBC Sounds. Just north of San Diego, in the lush coastal suburb of Carlsbad, there's an upmarket restaurant that sells expensive salads. One day in January 1986, two men walk through the front door. There's William Dillon, the broad shouldered blonde bodybuilder, and his less physically imposing business partner, Dan Duchene, known in bodybuilding circles as the steroid guru. They're here to meet a guy who works in the sports nutrition business. His name is David Jenkins. He's tall and lean with sandy hair. He's Scottish, but his accent has been softened by years spent living in America. The men size each other up and make their introductions.

[William Dillon]

Being around David is like being around a cottontail. You know what a cottontail is? It's a rabbit. It's a wild rabbit, right? His body's always moving. I don't think I ever saw him eat anything but salads.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

The three men take a seat and get down to business. What you're going to hear next is Dylan's recollection of their meeting. David Jenkins declined to be interviewed for this series and challenges some of the events that you're going to hear about. The way Dylan tells it is that Jenkins turned to him and Duchene and.

[William Dillon]

He said, I can buy raw material steroids.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

An ambitious new plan is taking shape.

[William Dillon]

We're like, well, where can we get them made? And David said, I found a lab in Mexico that will make them.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

If they followed through with this plan, Dillon, Jenkins and Duchenne wouldn't just be anabolic steroid dealers, they'd have their own supply chain. They wouldn't have to worry about the Food and Drug Administration cracking down on American pharmaceuticals. They could make and import more steroids than ever before at a rock bottom price. David Jenkins brings a new perspective and legitimacy to the game because he isn't just in the sports nutrition business in the mid-80s. He's also a former world class athlete, an Olympic medal winning sprinter to be specific. Our bunch of SoCal steroid dealing bodybuilders are about to learn a lesson from the world of elite sports doping. I'm Natalia Melman Petruzella from BBC Radio 4. This is Extreme Muscle Men episode three. Get ripped quick. Use the arms, keep the balance. Remember the form. That's the vital part. The knees are coming through.

[David Jenkins]

Well now that's a good split.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

A young David Jenkins books it down an empty running track. Dressed in a red T shirt and black tights, his coach shouts encouragement from the sidelines. It's 1972 and Jenkins is training hard for the Munich Olympics. An Associated Press camera crew is profiling him as one of the British team's great hopes.

[David Jenkins]

The time is irrelevant, really. It's just if you beat him or you don't beat him.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

This is the man who'll one day sit across from Dylan and Duchenne, hashing out how to launch an international steroid trafficking operation. Here on the field, he's calm, focused and confident, the epitome of an upstanding sportsman.

[Daniel Rosenki]

To do well in the Olympic final.

[David Jenkins]

You'Ve got to beat these sort of men.

[Daniel Rosenki]

Do you feel you can beat them?

[David Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't beat. Yes, I believe I can beat them or else I wouldn't be training now.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

David Jenkins has been training for this moment since he was a young boy on the school track. Nobody could touch him. By 17, he was a hot prospect on the British athletic scene. By 19, he's pounding down the track of the European Championship in Helsinki on the senior men's team. For Great Britain, Olympic glory is the next logical step. And when the starting gun fires on the men's 4x400 relay final at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Jenkins does not hesitate. The Kenyan team clinches gold, but Jenkins narrowly snatches a silver medal. According to Jenkins, he does all of this clean, that is, without the help of anabolic steroids or any other performance enhancing drug. But he definitely saw them around. The International Olympic Committee didn't officially add steroids to their list of banned substances until 1975, three years after Munich, Jenkins tours around the world to different sporting events. He's described how he watched other athletes head into the pharmacies and stock up on tablets and injectables they can't get ahold of in their home country. He's not tempted, not right away, at least. But in the winter of 1976, at a promotional event in England's Wolverhampton, everything changes. He's running a series of sprints against a couple of guys he's trained with before. Jenkins is confident he's used to beating them. But when they start running, something is different. Jenkins legs are pumping. He's going full out. But it's just not enough. With every race, as Jenkins gets more tired, the guy increases his lead. He notices the new muscles that fill out his rival's chest and legs. His stamina is Inexhaustible. This is a crisis point for Jenkins. He faces a hard decision. Someone he once ran streaks ahead of is now leaving him in the dust.

[Michael Cohen]

If you're just a fast kid and the sport selects you and you end up rising up the ranks, I mean, there's going to be a decision no matter what.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

This is Daniel Rosenki. He's a professor of sports studies at Sterling College, Chengdu University. Just like David Jenkins, he Daniel had dreams of Olympic glory. He rose through the ranks of the Canadian track and field scene, but eventually he hit a ceiling.

[Michael Cohen]

Work ethic only gets you so far in a sport like track and field. You know, the guy who was a stringbean at one point now looks like the Incredible Hulk. Did it come from diet and weight training?

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

It was obvious that people around him were turning to steroids to get a competitive edge. He resisted the temptation for a long time, but by the time he was turning 30 and about to start a PhD at the University of Texas, his resolve was wearing thin.

[Michael Cohen]

I'm at an impasse right now, and I have to make a decision. It's go to the dark side, so to speak, or admit to yourself that I wasn't going to be in the Olympics.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Daniel decided to give up on his dreams of athletic stardom and concentrated on his academic career instead. Today, he's probably the most knowledgeable historian about the steroid ring, led by none other than Dylan Duchene and David Jenkins.

[Michael Cohen]

They were really the pioneers of steroid trafficking.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

In 1976, David Jenkins made a different choice than Daniel Rosenki. He did decide to try steroids. It's a step that many athletes had taken before him. Anabolic steroids, as we know them today, got their start at the end of the 19th century, when researchers were beginning to investigate hormones. The real breakthrough came in 1931, when researchers in Germany managed to create a substance called androsterone, a type of steroid hormone that's naturally produced in the body.

[Michael Cohen]

It was done with the use of, I think it was 25 liters of policeman's urine.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Testosterone itself was first synthesized in a lab in 1935. It started being prescribed for things like hypogonadism. That's when the body isn't producing enough testosterone naturally. It was still pretty niche medicine, but it didn't take long before people started to theorize that it could have its uses in sports.

[Michael Cohen]

As the story goes. So a Soviet weightlifting coach was having drinks with an American coach during the World weightlifting championships in 1954.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Relationships between the United States and the Soviet Union were deteriorating by the day. America had just launched the world's first nuclear submarine. Senator Joseph McCarthy was claiming that Communists had infiltrated the US government. And at a bar in Vienna, the two weightlifting coaches from either side of the Cold War sat down together for a drink. But underneath the barroom chumminess, the rivalry was unmistakable. At this point, the Soviets had really been dominating the competition. And the Americans wanted to know what their secret was.

[Michael Cohen]

The Soviet coach revealed to the American coach that the entire weightlifting team was using testosterone. According to the Soviet coach, the lifters were using so much testosterone that they had to be catheterized to pee because their prostates were so gigantic.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

That's one of the unfortunate side effects that can happen when excess testosterone breaks down in the body. But the Americans weren't put off. When the US Weightlifting team got back home, their team physician, a guy named Dr. John Ziegler, got to work. Ziegler was an ex Marine and no stranger to the gym himself. The plan was to concoct their own version of the Soviet secret weapon, an.

[Michael Cohen]

All American steroid that didn't have the virilizing effects of testosterone, so that wouldn't force athletes to catheterize themselves to take a piss.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

This story is so wild because it's this vivid example of the foundational American ideal of hard work bumping up against the equally powerful Cold War anxiety that Russia is going to dominate us through technology. And so you get an American basically cribbing a Soviet steroid recipe in order to keep American bodies competitive in the gym and in the geopolitical realm. The result of Dr. Ziegler's foray into steroids after that weightlifting championship was Diana Ball. Diana Ball was officially intended to help with conditions like muscle wasting and bone density deficiencies. In 1958, four years after that meeting in Austria, it was released to market by Ciba Pharmaceuticals.

[Michael Cohen]

Almost immediately, it took hold in weightlifting and barbell culture in the US.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

And it didn't just stay there. It spread like wildfire through the world of elite sports. At the Olympic stadium of the Central University of Venezuela in Karak, the stands are packed. The youth band of Venezuela plays a jaunty march as they stride across the athletics track. Dressed in matching blue waistcoats. Cadets from the local military training regiments march past, led by beauty pageant queens from different provinces of Venezuela. It's the opening ceremony of the 1983 Pan American Games. Thousands of athletes from across the Americas have come to compete across dozens of different sports. One of those athletes is Michael Cohen.

[Daniel Rosenki]

For me to go, it was a big thrill in my life because I was going to actually march in with the American team wearing the American outfits and waving to the crowd and whatnot.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Michael is an Olympic weightlifter. Remember in bodybuilding you've got greased up guys in tiny trunks doing poses. You don't have to lift anything in front of the judges. It's all about the looks. Olympic weightlifting is about strength, how much weight you can lift. Michael is 181 pounds with an impressive beard and in his early twenties. He's one of the youngest on the lifting team. The Pan Am Games are a big opportunity for him.

[Daniel Rosenki]

I was psyched to say the least.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

But behind the scenes in Caracas, trouble was brewing over in the athletes village. Prior to this competition, sports drug testing wasn't always very effective.

[Daniel Rosenki]

Athletes knew how the whole game was played. Three months out from competition you went off oil based drugs. Oil based steroids stay in your body a lot longer than water based steroids. And then six weeks out you went on a water based testosterone drug. Three weeks cleans your system out. You can pass every test and you don't have to worry about testosterone because they're not testing for that.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Michael's father was a weightlifting coach who disapproved strongly of drug use. Michael says because of that he only ever experimented with testosterone and even then his dad called him out on it. Michael's recollection is that the USA team prepared for Caracas in 83 like any other competition with the same predictable tests. But this time is different. The Pan Am Games are using something called a gas chromatography mass spectrometry test. Bit of a mouthful. It could identify steroids which were previously undetectable and it could detect them a long time after an athlete had stopped using. And it could also identify excessive levels of testosterone. Exactly when the athletes were told about the testing measures at Caracas is contested. Michael says he only found out a few days before the start of the competition. The athletes are gathered together for training. They're in the business of winning medals and they do not take the news well.

[Daniel Rosenki]

Stunned, stunned. Not only stunned, but outraged, pissed, very upset. When the athletes got to Caracas, Venezuela, the vast majority of knew they were in trouble big time, across the board. Not just United States, but across the board.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

When the Caracas Games get underway and it's time for the athletes to take their starting positions, suddenly a bunch of them just aren't there. Athletes are dropping like flies with sudden unexpected injuries, raising speculation that they're just avoiding testing. And if you do choose to compete, of course it's a risk. The American weightlifter, Jeff Michaels wins three gold medals only to test positive for excessive testosterone. He's disqualified and stripped of his medals. Michaels always claimed that he hadn't taken steroids or testosterone and that the test result was an error. Cohen and the rest of the US Weightlifting team get out of Caracas a week earlier than planned.

[Daniel Rosenki]

They sent us back all as one team and we left at nighttime, late at night and left, got out of Dodge.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

12 track and field athletes who haven't even competed yet follow suit.

[Daniel Rosenki]

Track and field said, hell no. So your best shot putters, your best discus throwers, 60 meter, 100 meter, withdrew from the competition completely. Just said screw it and just flew back home. And that's literally when all hell broke loose.

[David Jenkins]

Drums and athletics exploded into a scandal of unprecedented magnitude.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Thirteen American athletes, all but two of whom were field event competitors, decided to return to the United States this morning, only hours before their competition got underway. News coverage like this CBS report described Caracas as a a drug scandal that was a loaded term in 1983, especially when it was linked to Latin America, which was associated with the drug trade. Even if international athletes, including from the US were the users in question, President Ronald Reagan was cracking down on recreational drug use and declaring controlled substances a vicious threat to the health of the nation. The Caraca scandal put anabolic steroids in the spotlight too. But because steroids were used to gain physical advantage in what was supposed to be this pure, almost heroic arena of sport, this scandal also presented steroids as the cheater's drug, the antithesis of American sportsmanship.

[Daniel Rosenki]

It is the absolute turning point because up until then it was a dirty held secret to where it's now out in the open. You know, people are now starting to talk about anabolic steroids.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Michael says some athletes felt like they'd been thrown under the bus by the sporting authorities.

[Daniel Rosenki]

It was horrendous. Laying blame on the athletes is not fair. It is fair because the athletes are the ultimate response for putting something in their body. But they were placed in that position. The Olympic Committee knew what was going on. The United States was caught with their pants down and the athletes were screwed.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

William E. Simon, the president of the International Olympic Committee, which was Affiliated with the 1983 Pan Am Games, told Sports Illustrated he had no sympathy for the athletes. He made it clear that the Olympic Committee did not tolerate steroid use and said the athletes had been warned time and time again. Tough Talk. In total, 19 athletes were found positive for using banned substances at the Games. What's more, the 1984 Olympics were just around the corner and they were going to be held in Los Angeles. Another major doping scandal on home turf would be a disaster for American sport. The timing of the drug crackdown indicates that officials are sending a message about the policing of drug activity at next year's Olympics. But William E. Simon was confident. Ahead of the LA Games, we have the most sophisticated dope testing from Germany here in Caracas, and we expect to have at least that in Los Angeles in 1984. But at the same time, Team USA wanted medals. So while officials were issuing warnings on TV against the use of steroids at the LA Olympics, according to academic Daniel Rosenke, the reality on the ground was a bit more complicated.

[Michael Cohen]

In 1984, the U.S. olympic Committee had a program, what they called an educational program about anabolic steroids and doping. In actuality, it was a how to get away with using drugs program.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Dr. Paul Ward, who coordinated the program, told the LA Times that he thought athletes should make up their own minds. If they want to use drugs, then you have to give them the right facts. And this included information about how to beat drug screenings. When the scandal broke, the US Olympic Committee condemned the program. They denied any knowledge that Ward had been acting as a drug advisor. Even so, Sports Illustrated accused the Olympic Committee of dragging its feet in the crackdown on doping. New testing measures were rolled out, not at the level we see today, where athletes are subject to surprise testing or tests outside of competitions, but a stigma was growing. Scandals like Caracas began to fuel an anxiety about steroids. And at the same time, the authorities were starting to look more closely at what they were being used for. In 1983, the Food and Drug Administration began cracking down on the manufacture of Diana Ball on the heels of a sweeping nationwide study into how effective different pharmaceuticals were. By December 1985, Diana Ball and all of its generic versions had been ejected from the US market. It was this ban that drove sales underground and handed Dylan and Duchene a booming black market for the stuff. Behind the scenes, the pressure on athletes to secure victory at all costs was as intense as ever. So knowledge about things like anabolic steroids was at a premium. Which was lucky for one Scottish sprinter who had plenty of firsthand experience of those pressures to win.

[David Jenkins]

One day one can come out and run such and such a time very fast and the next day be equally slow. And it doesn't really matter the time. It matters where you rate on the day you against him.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Twelve years on, from his days Competing at the Munich Olympics. David Jenkins had retired from athletics and was living in the US While he was building up a business selling protein products. He says he also gave advice to athletes about steroids to help them beat the increasingly frequent testing athletes could now count on. Jenkins claims that some of the athletes he advised went on to win medals at the 1984 Olympics. In 1986, when David Jenkins met William Dillon and Dan Duchene, each of them saw something in the other. Jenkins had a passion for performance enhancement. Born in the elite track and field scene, Duchene and Dylan were plugged into a growing market of everyday steroid users all over America, particularly in the bodybuilding scene. And all of them had a gut instinct for how to make money. So when they discussed joining forces, they must have sensed that together they could be unstoppable. Dylan recalls it like this.

[William Dillon]

David's saying, well, let's do it, and we'll label it like this. And we'll do this. We'll do this.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Back at the Italian restaurant in Carlsbad, the trio are sitting around a table talking excitedly. Jenkins has a connection with a pharmaceutical company in Mexico that can turn the raw ingredients into whatever steroids they need. Then all they have to do is smuggle them across the border. Dylan and Duchenne will have their own exclusive direct supply of all the steroids they could possibly want. They'll control the manufacturing process and the shipments. Vertical integration, like you read about in business books, which means they can make their own versions of steroids that are popular but hard to get a hold of. Like Diana Ball. The dollar signs are practically flashing in their eyes. Dylan has just one objection.

[William Dillon]

I'm like, okay, here's the problem. You can't come out with a new product and get everybody to take it. They're going to want to take stuff that they know is real. What if we do this? What if we counterfeit the bottles? What if we make it exactly like the US Stuff? Put the serial numbers. A bottle of testosterone would be the exact same look and feel and everything as the one done in the United States. And it'll be labeled the same.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

But Dylan, ever the businessman, is always thinking about how to create more demand, even if that means duping his own customers or messing with their doses.

[William Dillon]

I remember telling him, what we do is if it's 5 milligram tablets, we make them 7 milligrams.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

I find this really disturbing. Mislabeling your product so people can't control their own doses is really dangerous. When we asked David Jenkins about this, he denied it. It's early February 1986. David Jenkins arrives at the Hotel Fiesta Americana just across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. The hotel complex features two sleek mirrored glass skyscrapers overlooking a lush golf resort. Jenkins takes an elevator up to the corporate offices of Laboratorios Milanos. He's here to meet with the head of the pharmaceutical company, Juan Javier Maclis. Mackless is in his late 40s, a heavyset man who takes pride in his presentation. He wears a smart Cuban shirt and a fancy watch. He runs a state of the art laboratory with everything needed to make steroids. If Jenkins can just get him the raw ingredients, they make a deal. Machlis will manufacture a batch of Diana Ball at one of his labs nearby. When Jenkins drives back across the US border, the stage is set. By the end of February, Laboratorios Milanos has manufactured 2,500 bottles of Diana Ball, 4,000 vials of decadarabalin, and 500 bottles of oxandrolone. That's around $300,000 worth of steroids on the black market. Not bad for a couple weeks work. Now they just need to get the drugs back into the U.S. it's worth remembering that at this point in the U.S. anabolic steroids weren't regulated in the same way as recreational drugs like cocaine or heroin or marijuana, which came under a federal law called the Controlled Substances act, first passed in 1970. And you could get steroids legally without a prescription in Mexico. But that didn't mean what the ring members or MacLists were doing was exactly legal. Steroids were still regulated under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic act as a prescription pharmaceutical product in the US if you got caught selling or importing steroids illegally, it could land you in prison for up to a year. Manufacturing your own unlicensed counterfeit steroids for sale to the US market was breaking even more regulations in practice. Very few steroid trafficking cases had ever been prosecuted at this point. But the ring cannot afford to take any chances. So they resort to some tried and true drug smuggling tactics.

[William Dillon]

To get into the country. They actually had smugglers that would. They had things in their pants that they would just fill with pills.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Machlis directed his people to help get the product across the border. His employees sew steroids into the hems of specially constructed pants and filled garbage bags full of steroids and wrapped them around their bodies. They also packed car doors full of the product, like Dylan did back on his first ever trip to buy steroids in Mexico.

[William Dillon]

And then they would cross the border. They would get A hotel room. And then they bottle everything.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Rows and rows of steroid bottles would be laid out. Machlis employees would carefully label them with the mark of trusted steroid manufacturers in the US and Europe. All completely counterfeit, just like Dylan planned.

[William Dillon]

And then they'd leave everything in suitcases and we'd get a call.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

The phone rings in la. Dillon and Duchene learn that a shipment has made it across the border. That's their cue to drive down to a hotel in Del Mar, a sleepy coastal San Diego resort town.

[William Dillon]

There'd be suitcases, right? Like 10, 11 suitcases.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

And each one is stuffed to these seams with hundreds of bottles of counterfeit steroids. Dylan and Duchenne load up their car and they stick around just long enough for Duchenne to complete what would become a weird ritual.

[William Dillon]

Every time we'd go, Dan would shower there for some reason, I don't know why. And then he'd leave 20 bucks on the bed.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

And with that, they're ready to go. There's just one last obstacle to face. Navigating a checkpoint with a trunk load of suspicious looking suitcases. They sit in the dark, waiting. Maybe in that moment they had some sense of the risk they were taking. Or maybe they were too busy thinking about how they were going to spend all the money they were about to make. When the all clear comes, they floor the accelerator. The steroid bottles clink in the suitcases as they speed past the checkpoint. The plan has worked. Duchenne, Dylan and Jenkins have customers clamoring for Diana Ball. And they're about to deliver. They aren't just dealers anymore. They're running an international steroid ring. They're riding a wave that's going to revolutionize the way people all over America look at their bodies and transform them. That's coming up next episode on Extreme Muscle Men. With me, Natalia Melman Petruzella. The producer of Muscle Men is Caroline Thornham. The assistant producer is Mohamed Ahmed. The editor is Katherine Godfrey. Sound design and mix by Daniel Kempson. Original music by Silverhawk AKA Cyrille Poirier. Our production manager is Cherie Houston. Our commissioning editor at the BBC is Dan Clark. Max O'Brien is the executive producer for Novel. And I'm Natalia Melman Petruzella, your host and executive producer. Extreme is produced by novel for BBC Radio 4.

[David Jenkins]

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy articulated his vision for why we, or rather America, would choose to go to the moon.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

We choose to go to the moon.

[David Jenkins]

In the Kennedy archive, you hear Cold War competition front and center, you'll be.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

Sure we are behind.

[David Jenkins]

But this rubs up against the ethical dimension of space endeavor, which says that when we take these giant steps, they should always be for the benefit of all humankind.

[Natalia Melman Petruzella]

We shall make up and move ahead.

[David Jenkins]

Who gets to go and how it impacts the rest of us and space itself are vital questions to answer in a looming new era of space travel. So come with me, Matthew side, to explain. Explore the moral dilemmas that sit at the heart of space exploration and why they should matter to you. Sideways A new frontier. Listen now on BBC Sounds.