5. The A Team
Description
Nobody gets arrested for dealing anabolic steroids. That’s the assumption bodybuilder Dan Duchaine, William Dillon and their fellow ring-members are relying upon, as they build the biggest steroid trafficking operation in America. But that’s all about to change.
As President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs rages in the mid 1980s, the ring find themselves in the crosshairs of a team of dogged investigators leading the fight against steroids.
Host Natalia Mehlman Petrzela reveals how a newly formed National Steroid Taskforce put steroids enforcement, once seen as a fringe issue by the authorities, on the map. That’s bad news for Dillon and his fellow steroid dealers. But catching them won’t be easy…
Featuring William Dillon; Daniel Supnick, a former special agent with the US Customs Service, and former special agent in the Criminal Investigations Division of the IRS, Stephen Gelman.
Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
Producer: Caroline Thornham
Assistant Producer: Mohamed Ahmed
Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Production Manager: Cheree Houston
Sound Design and Mix by Daniel Kempson
Original Music by SilverHawk, aka Cyrille Poirier
Executive Producer: Max O’Brien
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
Featuring clips from:
Interview with Philip Halpern - Professor Daniel Rosenke
Panorama: Dying to Win: Drugs in Sport - BBC1
Ronald Reagan speech, 1986 - The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
‘Say No To Drugs’ Public Service Announcement - Mike Tyson
Episodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO
In the wake of the steroid ring’s downfall, the headline-grabbing prosecutions combine with sports scandals and anxieties about steroids making it into high school locker rooms. Lawmakers decide to take action. The Steroid Control Act of 1990, spearheaded by none other than then-Senator Joe...
Published 09/16/24
When bodybuilder William Dillon moved to LA, he dreamed of getting rich quick by selling the promise of big muscles in a bottle. But in the spring of 1987, that dream has come crashing down around him. With the authorities closing in on the steroid dealing ring, and fearing for his life, it’s...
Published 09/09/24