The owners of these homemade laboratories had previously been dedicated to other professions in an honest way. However, due to the economic crisis, they decided to change its course and chose the clandestine manufacture of so called “shame medicinal products”. These medicines are easily sold on the black market and are used to increase muscle mass, lose-weight or to treat erectile dysfunction (this is a common side effect of the anabolic steroids), among other purposes. This operation started in 2013 by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as a result of the discovery of a company selling laboratory equipment to European countries. Europol received the European customer list of this company and then divided it among the security forces of each country. In the case of Spain, four operations were launched by the National Police in Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Miranda de Ebro (Burgos) and Madrid. Clandestine laboratories, which manufactured and placed medicinal products on the market, were identified. Even some of the arrested people had created a distribution brand of medicinal products, Biogenic, that was distributed over a website and a shop. So far, 24 people have been arrested and a large number of illegal substances have been intervented. The work of the National Police has been an example for the rest of European Police Forces.
