Acccording to this article in the Guardian, Sandro Donati, a senior Italian Olympic official reckons that organised crime is heavily involved in the trafficking of performance enhancing drugs around Europe.

The police in Italy first started serious investigations in 2000 when they claimed to have smashed a big mafia operation to smuggle human growth hormone, anabolic steroids and EPO from Sicily to sports centres and laboratories across Italy.

During a nationwide operation they raided 65 houses, offices, laboratories, gyms and pharmacies and confiscated thousands of banned performance-enhancing drugs and instructions for athletes on how to administer them.

I wonder how long it will be before an athlete is made an offer he can’t refuse ;-)