The head of Greece’s drug watchdog told a parliamentary committee yesterday that he had recently been the subject of numerous death threats and that a factory in Greece is making 1.4 million boxes of anabolic steroids each year.

Dimitris Vagionas, the president of the National Pharmaceutical Organization (EOF), claimed that gangs which were distributing steroids in Greece had recently been threatening his life. Vagionas said that 22 bomb threats had been phoned in to his office in the past few months.

Although the production of steroids is not illegal, their use by athletes is. Vagionas, however, raised doubts about the legality of a factory in Greece which was making 1.4 million boxes of steroids each year for the export market.

Vagionas said that EOF was too short-staffed to conduct thorough checks, particularly in the food supplement market, which he said is worth 6 billion euros a year.