
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 10, 1994                   TAG: 9401100103
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STEROID DOCTOR ARRESTED ON DRUG WARRANTS

Dr. Jamie Astaphan, who admitted prescribing steroids for sprinter Ben Johnson and other athletes, was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on drug warrants.

Astaphan was arrested Saturday by Drug Enforcement Administration agents when his plane from Antigua to Toronto was diverted to New York because of the weather, DEA spokesman John Dowd said Sunday.

He was wanted on two federal warrants, one from Buffalo, N.Y., for importation and distribution of steroids, and the other from Tampa, Fla., for conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and cocaine, said Jason Brown, a lawyer with the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn, which handled Astaphan's arraignment.

Johnson won the gold medal in the 100-meter dash in world-record time at the 1988 Olympics, but was stripped of the award and the record and banned from the Olympics after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

by CNB