In the United States they are dubbing it potentially the biggest drug scandal yet to hit sport – an international investigation code-named Operation Raw Deal that has seized massive amounts of anabolic steroids in many countries.

In Australia over 1400 drug shipments have been seized and some 30 people charged. But while in the US there is speculation about thousands of professional athletes being exposed, in Australia no big names have been caught. The Australian Sports Drug Agency, it appears, has had the desired deterrent effect with the illegal steroid use confined to body builders and martial arts exponents.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration overnight described Operation Raw Deal as the largest steroids crackdown in the nation’s history. Yahoo! Sports reported that DEA offices in New York and San Diego provided lead guidance during an investigation that resulted in 124 arrests and seizures at 56 labs across the country.

Investigators also seized 71 weapons, 27 pill presses, 25 vehicles and three boats, but the coveted item was illegal drugs, and the DEA said it intercepted a staggering quantity. Also, federal officials are creating a database of names of the people who received steroids, human growth hormone (HGH) and other drugs banned by most sports leagues and athletic associations, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.

In Canberra the Australian Customs Service is planning to release details of its involvement in the international operation later today. The ACS gave some details of its “investigation targeting smugglers of steroids, growth hormones and other illegal performance enhancing drugs” back in July. It claimed then to have smashed a number of criminal networks operating throughout the country.

The US reports say that China was the principal source of the steroids and human growth hormones discovered. The Yahoo report commented that the role of Chinese companies in supplying steroids to the underground market figures to be sensitive for China considering the country will play host to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in August. But the investigation could prove even more damaging to the world of sports. It continued:

Major League Baseball has scrambled to control recent news leaks of players connected to the Signature scandal. Last week, an arbitration panel upheld the results that showed American cyclist Floyd Landis used synthetic testosterone during his riveting comeback victory in the 2006 Tour de France. And for months, during his successful quest to overtake Hank Aaron as baseball’s all-time home run king, Barry Bonds reignited controversy from a steroids scandal that stemmed from a 2003 raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) that ensnared Bonds and several other well-known athletes.

On Monday, the sports world will learn of the latest potential bombshell. Officials are scheduled to announce details of Operation Raw Deal during news conferences in New York and San Diego.