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Four foreign athletes were sprung by Customs attempting to bring performing-enhancing drugs into New Zealand for a pre-Olympics sporting event.
While the athletes were eventually allowed to leave the country without facing charges, the sting is thought to be the first fruit in a new partnership between Drug Free Sport New Zealand and Customs.
Drug Free Sport NZ chief executive Graeme Steel told the Herald on Sunday a memorandum of understanding between his organisation and Customs allowed the swapping of information.
That had paid immediate dividends but Steel would not divulge any details into the identity of the athletes, what event they were here for, what sport they were involved with, where they were from, or initially what type of PEDs were imported. He also would not say whether the athletes would be competing in Beijing.
"I don't want to affect the investigation adversely," he said.
Steel would state only that there were four foreign athletes.
"They were part of a group that was arriving in New Zealand to compete," Steel said.
He later said the four were caught with anabolic steroids but were not arrested by Customs.
"Typically people in that situation wouldn't be," Steel said.
"They were held by Customs and interviewed and the materials were confiscated."
Steel said the athletes were not sent home but the matter was "being dealt with by an international federation".
As the market for steroids and other PEDs, such as erythropoetin (EPO), is very small here, the likelihood is the drugs were for personal use and would not have been on-sold.
DFSNZ carries out hundreds of tests a year in New Zealand and almost all the positive tests are for cannabis.
In the year July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2007, there were 15 doping infractions from 1602 tests.
Eleven tested positive for cannabis, six in league, three in basketball and one each in bodybuilding and boxing.
Powerlifting provided the only "non-cannibinoid" positive test, with one lifter picked up for BZP.
Two bodybuilders failed to provide a sample, as did one boxer.
Steel said that, thankfully, there did not appear to be a culture of drug use in New Zealand sport.
This was best exemplified by his organisation's United By The Pledge initiative that has seen many of the country's highest profile athletes - including Sarah Ulmer, Richie McCaw, the Evers-Swindell twins and Moss Burmester - sign up.
The most visible symbol of their pledge is a green wristband inscribed with "strong enough to be clean".
