U.S. Customs seizes shipments of 'performance-enhancing drugs' from Mexico

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the Port of Cincinnati has seized eight shipments since the start of the year containing “equine performance-enhancing drugs,” the agency announced on Wednesday.

The release, which did not specify the seizure dates, said that the shipments included injectables of various products labeled as cobra venom or TB-1000, in addition to unapproved medications such as caffeine, anabolic steroids, “unknown vitamin compounds,” Ritalin, and ketamine. The shipments arrived from Mexico and “were destined to multiple individuals throughout the U.S., some with nexus to racing or other horse performance venues,” the agency said.

The release from the agency noted the proximity of Cincinnati to Central Kentucky, where the equine industry is a large driver of the economy.

“CBP is committed to protecting this industry and the animals within it by preventing illicit substances such as these – designed to mask pain or artificially enhance an animal’s legitimate physical capabilities – from coming into the country,” said the director of the Cincinnati port, Alrick Brooks, in a release.

A spokesman for the CBP said in an interview on Friday that the agency could not be more specific about the destinations of the shipments. He said that information related to seized shipments is forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security, which would oversee any investigations, sometimes in consultation with state or federal attorneys general.

The substances were seized at a DHL processing hub in Erlanger, Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati, the largest U.S. processing center for the company. International shipments via DHL typically first arrive at the Erlanger location before being distributed to other hubs around the U.S. on the way to final delivery.

Substances such as those seized by the CBP are notorious in racing for their connection to a federal investigation that resulted in the indictments of 27 individuals connected to Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing in 2020. Those indictments eventually led to two prominent Thoroughbred trainers, Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, being sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

The efficacy of the substances, which are generally produced and sold by compounding companies over the internet, remains questionable. Scientific studies of seized substances with similar labeling have concluded that many of the products do not contain all of their advertised ingredients and that they “are often produced after aborted drug development due to insufficient or deleterious biological effects, synthesized based on natural products, or only based on scientific literature,” according to a study conducted in 2022.

According to the release, the substances were seized “at the request of the Food and Drug Administration given the medications were not in compliance with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and were in violation of multiple FDA regulations.”

Federal authorities used a section of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to charge the 2020 indictees with violations of drug misbranding and adulteration laws.

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