Federal and state law-enforcement officials recently raided a group of online pharmacies suspected of illegally providing steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, USA Today reported Feb. 28.

Online pharmacies like Signature Pharmacy and Applied Pharmacy Services are accused of connecting buyers to shady physicians who will write prescriptions for drugs with few questions asked. "We have investigated, and are prosecuting, one of the largest narcotics and steroid distributors in the nation," said Albany County, N.Y., District Attorney P. David Soares.

The targeted companies are "compounding pharmacies," meaning they are allowed to manufacture drugs for resale if they cannot easily be acquired via retail stores. Officials said the firms took advantage of the law to make and sell steroids and human growth hormone.

"The effects of knocking out an online pharmacy is only temporary; a new guy is going to pop up. We've seen that when players get caught, they go scot-free and the dealers get arrested. Someone just takes their place," said Gary Gaffney, a professor at the University of Iowa and founder of the blog Steroid Nation.

But Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said that, "The Internet represents a marked area of vulnerability. There are no borders. Who knows why you're buying? ... Who is the most comfortable with the Internet? Kids, the same people who have the air of indestructibility."