(June 1, 2009)—The arrest of a Copperas Cove firefighter in a multi-state steroid crackdown stemmed from an investigation that stretched from a pharmaceutical company in China to a company in Texas, according to a 19-page indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Houston.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Cove firefighter Larry Keith Woodard last Wednesday morning at a Cove fire station on charges of conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute anabolic steroids and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute hydrocodone.

Woodward, who has been a Cove firefighter since 2007, was released on $25,000 bond after a hearing Wednesday afternoon before a federal magistrate in Waco.

He’s named in two counts of the 46-count indictment, but the chief defendant is Charles Brock Falkenhagen, the owner and operator of a company in Sugar Land called Fitness Consultants.

The indictment says that the company smuggled Human Growth Hormone into U.S. from Changchun, China, where GeneScience Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd. manufactured it.

It also alleges that the company distributed anabolic steroids, hydrocodone and alprazopam, selling the products through phone calls, text messages and e-mail in Texas and around the country.

Falkenhagen is also named in counts charging money laundering.

About 50 Houston-area men and women were taken into custody in raids that began before dawn last Wednesday.

Officers confiscated pills, pot, cash and other items during the raids.

Officials say simultaneous arrests took place in Louisiana, California and Georgia.

About 75 people were arrested in all.

“DEA and its law enforcement counterparts have uncovered an elaborate drug trafficking network involving the importation and distribution of anabolic steroids, human growth hormones, and addictive pharmaceutical drugs,” said Special Agent-in-Charge of the Houston Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Zoran B. Yankovich.

“We have seen too many times the dangers of steroids, HGH and prescription drug abuse. These drugs are harmful and they ruin lives, families and communities. DEA will continue to work everyday to rid our communities of these harmful poisons and the criminals who sell them,” he said.