At least two firefighters, one with the Houston Fire Department, have been arrested in Wednesday’s sweeping drug raid that has been called the largest in Fort Bend County history.
At last count, authorities had arrested a total of 73 suspects, including Houston Firefighter Brad Adrian Ascenzi.
ASCENZI
Ascenzi gained a degree of notoriety in 2007 after being awarded the department’s Medal of Valor for heroic action during a midrise fire on Loop 610.
He was charged with conspiracy to manufacture and deliver a controlled substance. Ascenzi was jailed under a $10,000 bond.
A second firefighter, this one from the Copperas Cove Fire Department in central Texas, was also arrested in connection with the undercover investigation, dubbed “Operation Farmacia de Juicy Phruit.”
DEA agents from Waco arrested Larry Keith Woodard at the Copperas Cover Fire Department at about 6 a.m. Wednesday. Woodard was on duty at the time he was arrested.
Woodard was charged with trafficking in steroids and Oxycotin. He was booked and released on a $25,000 bond.
The raid involved what was described as thousands of doses of human growth hormones or HGH, anabolic steroids and MDMA, or ecstasy.
The primary focus of the investigation has been identified as Charles Brock Falkenhagen, owner of Sugar Land-based Fitness Consultants.
Wright said Falkenhagen, who was also taken into custody, was at the center of a “loosely-organized” network of gym owners, personal trainers and body builders who were selling the drugs.
“This group was loosely organized and (the availability of the drugs) was spread primarily by word of mouth,” Wright said.
Additionally, Falkenhagen is alleged to have illegally imported ingredients for HGH and steroids from a Chinese company called Gen-Science Pharmaceuticals.
Falkenhagen is accused of smuggling the raw ingredients into this country, where they were then manufactured into the final product at a number of clandestine labs. Some of the labs are said to be in Fort Bend County; however, authorities did not identify where the labs were located.
Those taken into custody reportedly included pharmacists, bodybuilders, personal trainers, gym owners and individuals associated area pain management clinics.
More than 130 officers from a number of agencies began the raids before dawn.
In addition to deputies from the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, officers from police departments in Richmond, Rosenberg, Houston and Pearland, as well as the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, the DEA, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the United States Attorney’s Office were involved in the raids.
Arrests were also made in California, Georgia, Indiana and Louisiana.
If anyone has not read Smoke and Mirrors by Dan Baum, I am sorry. The Drug War is a war on everything EXCEPT drugs. The DEA is an anti-states-rights excuse for destroying lives and privacy in the name of funding a machine that steals tax dollars and property, at a rate that dwarfs the Iraq War.
Steroid users may be as vain as Botox users, but they are not terrorists and they are not a threat to me. OK, they may both look a little scary, but you know what I mean. The DEA, however, is a terrorist organization and they destroy people and taxpayers far, far beyond anything that Botox or steroids could ever do. Read Smoke and Mirrors and see if you agree. End the madness, end the drug war, save our children and save our tax dollars.
It is a waste of taxpayers money when it comes to certain individuals in this raid. Some purchased steriods 3 or 4 years ago on 2 occasions and did not do it again. That is a felony? Lets ruin a guys life over it?
What I hate is the media. There were 70 individuals arrested but they are going to single out a fire fighter who risks his life day in and day out to pull people out of buildings yet professional athletes are known users and they get a slap on the hand. When it is all said and done the truth will come out but you can bet the media will not make a big deal out of it. There will not be an article or a story on what the truth really is.
The true dealers and sellers are the ones that need to be punished. They are the ones selling.
Yes, this is America, and “YES” you and others voted for the lawyers to establish laws in this fine Country. Unfortunately in your case “drugs” without the proper Doctors prescription is illegal to have much less to sell on the streets to young influenced teens. It’s basically that simple.
As far as obesity and Mcdonalds, it is not against the law to sit in McDonalds and stuff your pie hole until your buttons pop. Maybe you could pose a bill to the State Representative? just a thought.
I see the personal and family pain of childhood obesity and the medical cost of resulting diabeties, but I’m not calling for McDonalds to close down. Lets allow people a bit of choice. Is this America or what?
I think if one considers the high addiction to vicodene, zanax and other illegally distributed pharmacutical drugs and the terriable effects they cause to not only the addict but the parents, grandparents, friends and others you may reconsider your path of thinking.
H-e-l-l-o … How does this “crime” affect me or anyone else that I know? And will women start getting arrested for Botox too? Clearly this is not a “crime” that is worth my tax dollars!