Trade in performance-enhancing drugs is so brisk this year that officials in Sydney suspect that organised crime is becoming involved. Officials in Australia discovered double the amount of steroids coming into the country in 1998-'99 than in 1997-'98. The hauls have primarily come from postal delivery seizures, with 138 hits in '97-98 and 329 last year.

Australia has now been considered a major source for anabolic steroids and the Olympic Games next September are tipped to be the dirtiest in history. Among those that Australian customs official Craig Flemming consulted in his fight against the couriers was David Jenkins, Britain's 1972 Olympic silver medallist who was jailed in 1987 for master-minding a steroid smuggling ring. Jenkins believes that 50 per cent of all athletes were likely to be on some sort of performance-enhancing drug.