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The Fall of British Dragon
DIR By: Road2HardCoreIron
Date: July 24, 2021, 1:01 pm
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The Rise and Fall of British Dragon.
With the death of the two original founders of the British
Dragon, the time has come to write a conclusive story about this
legendary Underground Laboratory, that set a footmark to most of
the present Underground Laboratories, some even originate from
its organization.
The Rise
The groundwork for the rise of British Dragon was laid before
the year 2000. Back then, it was very easy to import cheap real
human grade steroids from Thailand. This country was a literal
Valhalla for steroid-using bodybuilders. The pink pentangle
shaped tablets of methandrostenolone (Anabol) from The British
Dispensary had an almost mythical reputation. They were so
widely known, most people simply referred to them as “pinks” or
“Thaibol”. Those tablets where manufactured by a genuine Thai
pharmaceutical company called “The British Dispensary”. Thai
online pharmacies sent packages with human grade steroids like
Anabol all over the world. The story of the underground lab
British Dragon begins here, in Thailand.
A British man called Richard came to live in Thailand after
doing jail time for fraud in the United Kingdom. He was
determined to make a mark in the steroid business. Richard had
taken up with an Iranian partner named Mark, who also referred
to himself as Justin. Together, the two men started an
underground steroid manufacturing operation. They called it “The
British Dragon”, a name very similar to the popular Thai maker
of Anabol. The business started simply. They would copy Thai
Anabol. The two men asked a third individual, Kenneth C (CNK
International) in China to mold the pink pentangle shaped
tablets. The copy was excellent. So good, in fact, that the real
marker of Anabol (The British Dispensary) started pressing their
snake logo in their tablets, and using a golden hologram on
their bottles, to differentiate from this counterfeit.
In March of 2000, under pressure from United States, Thai
authorities cooperated to shut down online pharmacies in that
country that illegally sold prescription drugs to customers in
the United States. These pharmacies sold many drugs including
Viagra, tranquilizers, and anabolic steroids. All required
prescriptions in the United States, and were being exported from
Thailand in violation of local law. Acting on information
supplied by U.S. officials, Thai police raided locations in
Bangkok and Chiang Mai and arrested 22 people on suspicion of
violating Thailand’s drug and export laws. The Investigators
seized nearly 2.5 million dosage units of drugs. This arrest
would change the Thai market dramatically.
Following this series of raids it was almost impossible to get
any illegal products past Thai customs. This would be the
breakthrough that launched British Dragon from a small obscure
operation, to an enormous multi-national steroid empire. The
British Dragon organization was soon manufacturing virtually
every popular steroid, both orals and injectables, under their
own label. As their reputation grew, they developed their own
security measures, such as hologram stickers and custom formed
stoppers/caps. The expansions were very fast, and very dramatic.
To their credit, the British Dragon group was very enterprising.
The lab quickly became one of the leading suppliers of steroids
on the black markets of many countries worldwide. Even in the
U.S. market, the initials BD were well known.
I received lots of mails about British Dragon, but this one I
want to quote one. It came from someone close to Richard at one
time, though the source wishes to remain unnamed in the book.
“Now that the whole BD thing is over I’ll tell you something
about British Dragon that I never said before because I didn’t
wanna stir shit up because at the time this board came online I
really didn’t know for sure. I used to talk to this guy
‘Richard’ just about every week circa 2003-04 ; the way they
used to do it is he would fly out from Thailand to Greece every
month, his friend ‘Mark’ would meet him there, they would make
BD in this little room over there when they met, as he described
it there were absolutely no atomized processes there, he said
they would just mix the oil and alcohol with the powder in a big
glass thing, they would then draw the oil out of the bid glass
thing into a big syringe, like a 100ml one and the fill up the
10ml vials one by one; I never asked about filtering but it’s
safe to say that not a single BD vials has ever been filtered or
heated, and if it were heated maybe just to get the test prop or
tren to suspend fully. Richard described these sessions as
marathon, in that they would work for 16 hours strait those few
days that they were there and that was that months supply of BD
vials. they would then ship to their sources from within the EU.
He said that the closest thing they had to any mass production
equipment was this little hand-held thing that would put the
labels on strait. Labels and tops were the only thing Richard
and Mark ever seemed concerned about…”.
While the early production methods may have been crude, British
Dragon probably did not stay a “garage” operation. With
significant money rolling in, the group began improving its
production methods. They started to filter through a two-way
Millipore system. They wanted to start manufacturing according
the pharmaceutical guidelines in Eastern Europe. The group
reportedly starting having a drug contract manufacturing
facility make some of their products.
The British Dragon organization was lucky to have Mark, perhaps
mostly for his Chinese girlfriend Rebecca (real name Youlan).
She was able to help the group obtain high quality API steroid
powders. This was proven with The Hartford Courant analyses,
when some products of the British Dragon where compared with
other Underground Labs and counterfeits. Many Chinese raw
materials have a high heavy metal and acid content. This can
cause pain even if the benzyl alcohol content is low. Rebecca
and Mark had to pay more money for the materials, but they were
much more refined than what is usually sent out to other
underground labs. Rebecca assured this as she worked with a
Chinese research lab to analyze the raw materials. The high
quality of the used ingredients amplified the good reputation of
the brand name. This, and the strong marketing of a Russian
partner named Retabolil. Both Retabolil and Rebecca were very
knowledgeable and alert.
In 2004, the British Dragon owners partnered with a well-known
East European dealer/re-mailer named Alin. This was initially a
very profitable partnership, and opened up strong new markets.
Alin brought in a lot of money, especially with high-level
dealers. By April 2005, British Dragon was producing in three
locations due to the many different geographical regions they
had to deliver to. To protect their market they developed a
security label scheme. The blue label was for products sold in
Eastern Europe/CIS countries. The green label was for the Middle
East, and the red label for Western Europe. They protected it
further with a special custom green stopper, which had the name
and logo of the company.
Alin was a partner/manufacturer in the blue label operation.
The British Dragon saw how Alin was able to work “legally” and
in a professional way in Eastern Europe. They decided together
to register the British trademark in Eastern Europe, and obtain
the necessary licenses for a legal pharmaceutical manufacturing
company. BD was trying to go legit. Everything leading up to
this point was generally in a positive direction. The lab kept
improving its manufacturing, powder sourcing, and potentially
forming a real lab in Romania. Things were looking great for the
BD team.
As the partners planned to start a pharmaceutical manufacturing
company, they needed money for a plant, the licenses, and the
necessary equipment. This money was placed into a “registered
capital contribution”. This is an official agreement where each
associate can bring in the capital he desires. The associate
then owns the appropriate percentage of the total capital
(shares). There would now be four parties officially involved in
owning and operating the British Dragon. The first two, of
course, were the original founders of BD, Mark and Richard. The
third party was Alin, a now major source of sales. Alin, having
such a steady establishment in Moldova, was selected at the
official boss. He had “power of attorney”. Simply said, the
power of decision. The fourth member, a man named Roman, looked
after the logistical issues with regard to the deliveries. BD
seemed poised to set a new standard in the underground steroid
business – full registration.
The Fall
A high profit criminal enterprise like that was not destined to
last forever. Even early on there were some problems. The
original tablet manufacturer Kenneth had agreed to sell the BD
tablets only to the group. But he broke this agreement, and sold
them to other customers. Soon, a very big Ukrainian supplier by
the name of Vadim started buying them. Vadim would be a source
of significant problems for BD in the years to come, as there
were now two major sources for the same tablets. Vadim and his
dealers had the BD tablets but not the injectables. Although we
cannot attribute this to Vadim directly, rumors started around
this time that many of the BD injectables on the market were
fake. Other rumors were started about Vadim’s business. There
was too much confusing information about this lab on the
underground scene, and many people began doubting British Dragon
as a brand. This active counterfeiting would cause even further
rifts between the partners.
click to enlarge
For a short while, BD was able to reign in Kenneth, and
maintain some control over the tablet making. Vadim sold some
very successful brands in Russia. For a while, he seemed to
ignore BD and focus on other things. But he never forgot the
lucrative business that was the British Dragon brand. In the
middle 2005, he tried again to copy their products. This time,
his approach was more aggressive. He used attorneys to form an
official British Dragon company in the central office tower in
Hong Kong. He started selling BD counterfeits through online
sites that differed only one hyphen from the original British
Dragon website name. But the British Dragon organization was
more prepared this time around. Their re-mailers where respected
members of top bodybuilding message boards. And as soon as
Vadim’s associates posted their “knock-off “ products on the
boards, the remailers of British Dragon and the organization
itself hit back hard and posted pictures of the counterfeiters
on the boards. It turned out to be a very successful strategy.
Vadim’s copies were very good. Even in some anbolic reference
books, some pictures of those products made by Vadim where
mistakenly printed as the real BD items. These products where
actually made in India at BM Pharmaceuticals (the former Haryana
Pharma). This pharmaceutical company sells their products to
Vadim exclusively. Ironically enough, the end-users rejected
these real pharmaceutical-made products as “fakes” and preferred
the original BD brand. Since then, this aggressive marketing
became part of the British Dragon trademark. As soon as someone
had the guts to question the BD quality, he was attacked by a
group of people, usually including a site moderator or board
owner. They had a common interest. All this became painfully
clear as the whole dirty laundry was exposed in public at the
end of 2006. At that time, Vadim started, just as Richard and
Mark had done, a new brand name called British Pharmaceuticals.
Despite the good quality of their products, it did not become a
big success.
Counterfeiting would be the least of BD’s problems in the long
run. All plans for registration were finnaly halted after the
Mexico DEA busts (December 15, 2005). This series of organized
indictments and arrests removed the myth that the BD group
themselves had come to believed; that being a licensed company
would stop any legal prosecutions. In August 2006, the British
Dragon’s original two founders Richard and Mark started the
process of getting out of the partnership with Alin. Richard and
Mark offered to buy him out, or asked to he bought out. What was
perhaps even more crucial to this decision was that the group
found out in October 2006 that the U.S. DEA in Vienna Austria
(Vienna DEA country office covers Moldova) came upon information
of the BD organization from the DEA’s Bangkok office. The DEA
had already been tapping their phones and computers. They had
names and numbers, and knew Richard was the leader of the
organisation. The writing was on the wall.
Mark mailed me directly about this:
But it is not just focused on BD
I was really scared about *** threats of sending to authorities
info before, but as you see on those papers they already know us
plus more than 60 other names, the file was honestly 1.4 meters
high. There is something big gonna happen this year from DEA i
think it is not good to be around to catch the sting from them
…..
December 2006. The BD partners know that law enforcement action
at some level is imminent. Mark and Richard are anxious to get
away from Alin. By now, all of the arguments between the former
partners have a financial character. These arguments where
openly discussed on the discussion boards. Many people did not
understand why people were speaking about “shares” in an illegal
company. It was obvious that the company never official existed,
and the shares did not come from the stock exchange market.
Still, there seemed to be strong legitimate fighting over what
remained of the now defunct British Dragon enterprise.
In March 2007, Mark committed suicide. The story is fuzzy, but
we should provide much more detail than has been made public
before. Mark was reportedly trying to get on a flight out of
Vienna. The DEA regional office that covers Moldova is in
Vienna, and Mark was in the country to provide information and
try to keep out of jail. He trying to get on a flight, but was
too drunk, and refused to board the aircraft. Mark left the
airport to go to a hotel and sober up. He took a room at the NH
Hotel in Vienna, on the 6th floor. Our contact suggests Mark was
feeling very remorseful about meeting with the DEA. He was
reportedly very stressed, very afraid of going to prison in the
U.S. He had been complaining that Interpol was harassing him for
months. He didn’t know what to do. Sadly, he decided to take his
own life instead of face what was coming.
The same month that Mark died, Thai Police/DEA raided Richard’s
house. They also raided a man named Ashley, who sold paper
steroids under the name of RediCat. They didn’t find any
steroids in Richards house, but they did in Ashley’s. Richard
was the main target of the raid as they described him as the
‘boss’, and Ashley as just someone who worked for him. This is
true considering it was Richard that would buy the powder and
manufacture the paper products that Ashley sold. In other words,
he would make as much money on each of Ashley’s sales as Ashley
did, and that was small potatoes compared to Richards’s
distribution of British Dragon products, which was his main
business.
Another Email:
“So once they had them and they started extradition
proceedings, Richard decided to fight extradition and Ashley
decided to cooperate fully (particularly testifying against
Richard. I found odd Richard would fight it since the sentencing
guidelines for steroids actually isn’t that long-and fighting
extradition takes A VERY LONG TIME-at least 2 years, as you
probably know GymAce (who didn’t fight extradition) spent about
6 months in fed prison before being released. But if you read
the indictment for GymAce which was also posted online you will
find the answer-the feds wanted millions of dollars in fines
from GA. In these cases the feds will usually offer to drop the
money laundering charges against the subject if he turns over
the loot. Sentencing guidelines for money laundering is 10
years, steroids is only 1 or 2 and you usually get out in 6
months if you behave.
Richard is presently fighting the extradition, if he can beat
extradition he gets to keep his millions-which he has stashed
from Britain to Bulgaria to Thailand, if he gets extradited than
he’ll be faced with the same predicament, 10 to 20 years in
prison or turn over the money. “
On December 2008, Ashley arrived at Los Angeles International
Airport from Bangkok. He spent 8 months in a Thai prison and
fully cooperated with the Thai police, providing them with all
information about his customers and business associates. He was
a very organized man. Richard kept a list of his sales, all the
bribes and gifts he sent to the moderators of almost every board
for a period of almost 10 years. He also kept records of the
stock he purchased from all the major suppliers. This was a
golden catch for the police and a new source of worry for all of
the people on that list. No doubt, U.S. authorities are still
working this information.
Richard ultimately sold the British Dragon website. The new
owners have made public plans to bring back BD later in the
year. They claim that BD will come back as a fully registered
company this time, selling its products through pharmacies in
Eastern Europe. If successful, the new owners would realize a
dream the original partners had, but could not achieve. As time
proves the British Dragon died and can never be revived again!!
Richard fought extradition for three years but the Thailand
Court of Appeals ruled against Crawley and authorized the
continuation of extradition proceedings. He was finally
extradited to the United States in March 2011. He initially
should be in jail for a short short time because the prosecutor
wanted him for 46 months, then credited his entire time in
Thailand and the lawyer got some further time discounted. They
were only interested in the conviction, not information. The
lawyer made it pretty clear it was not a good idea to go to
trial. The US had a deal that Ashley would return to testify,
plus they had a confidential informant Leroy M, plus evidence
from his computer. If he had gone to trial and had lost, the
penalty would have been higher. He had no forfeiture to the US.
The US tried in the beginning to get his assets, but the Thais
returned everything. The US is satisfied to have a conviction on
the books. Statistics!
Richard pled guilty. With time served and time discounts, he
expected to be released in about 4 months and then sent out of
the US, maybe to the UK (as he is British – Ashley was deported
to UK) or Thailand, where he lived with his family.
But faith took an other direction, Richard Edwin Crawley founder
of the Underground Lab British Dragon Died. In the contrary to
their arrest and the extradition of Ashley, nobody seemed to
care. It was hardly covered on the world wide web.
Richard died in hospital in the US the morning of Friday July
the 1st. He was released from prison early there a few weeks ago
because he became so sick there with pneumonia and the USA
didn’t want to pay the hospital bill or have him die while they
still held him. So he was still in the hospital afterward and
didn’t get better. His wife and daughter were there at the end.
He will be cremated in the US.
I wrote on a US forum these words and they come from the bottom
of my heart:
The USA should have left him in Thailand, The USA doesn’t
extradite their own countryman, not even murderers. Shame on
the the USA, what had Richard done to deserve this?? And now
play the innocent?? Why not put him in Guantanamo Bay? For
selling steroids…. I have to puke
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