Top athletes tangled in doping probe

ALBANY, N.Y., March 9 (UPI) -- Investigators say a Florida pharmacy filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, the Orlando Sentinel said.

So far, only the alleged suppliers, doctors and pharmacists, have been charged in an investigation centered in Albany, N.Y. But prosecutors say their customers included celebrity athletes who have not been named.

Signature Compounding Pharmacy's four top executives pleaded not guilty in Albany this week. Naomi and Robert Loomis, the company's chief executive and chief operating officers; his brother, Kenneth, the chief compounding pharmacist; and Kirk Calvert, the director of business development, face a 20-count indictment.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares told the Sentinel that Signature's name kept turning up in an investigation into mail-order pharmaceuticals.

"Any reasonable pharmacist . . . upon seeing the volume of steroid prescriptions being filled for customers in completely different states on a regular basis, should know the prescriptions are likely not for a legitimate medical purpose," investigators said in a wiretap application.