'They represent a market of greed' - duo plead guilty to drugs charges

Two individuals, Scott Robinson and Sarah Izhaki, have pleaded guilty to their role in distributing adulterated and misbranded drugs in an alleged conspiracy that has seen 25 others indicted this year on federal charges related to doping racehorses in the US.

According to information released by Audrey Strauss, acting US Attorney for the Southern district of New York, Robinson sold millions of dollars worth of adulterated and misbranded equine drugs, including performance-enhancing drugs intended to be administered to racehorses from 2011 to March this year. These drugs were sold through several direct-to-consumer websites designed to appeal to trainers and owners.

Among the drugs sold were "blood builders", which are used by trainers and others to increase red blood cell counts and the oxygenation of muscle tissue to stimulate the horse's endurance, as well as customised analgesics, which are used by trainers and others to deaden a horse's nerves and block pain in order to improve a horse's performance.

Saudi Cup winner Jason Servis among 27 facing doping-related charges in US

Strauss said: "Scott Robinson and Sarah Izhaki represent the supply side of a market of greed that continues to endanger racehorses through the sale of performance-enhancing drugs. Each of these defendants provided the raw materials for fraud and animal abuse through the sale of unregulated and dangerous substances.

"Robinson's products were manufactured in shoddy facilities with no professional oversight of their composition. Izhaki's products were smuggled into the country and sold from cars in supermarket parking lots. These convictions show our office and our partners at the FBI are committed to the prosecution and investigation of corruption, fraud, and endangerment in the horseracing industry."

In a case from February 2018 to November last year, Izhaki conspired with others to transport, sell and deliver tens of thousands of dollars of erythropoietin, a blood-builder drug intended to increase a horse's performance, that had been smuggled into the country from Mexico.

Izhaki also offered for sale amphetamines and a substance she referred to as "the Devil", which she claimed would mask the presence of potent drugs in a human or animal's body.

The defendants are among 27 individuals charged in a series of indictments arising from an investigation of a widespread scheme by trainers, veterinarians, PED (performance enhancing drugs) distributors, and others to manufacture, distribute and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses. Those indictments included trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro.

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