ORLANDO, Fla. -- Federal and state narcotics agents arrested the owners of an Orlando pharmacy Tuesday as part of a New York state investigation into the sale of steroids and other performance enhancers to professional and college athletes over the Internet.

Stan and Naomi Loomis, both licensed pharmacists who own the Signature Pharmacy in downtown Orlando and another nearby, and Stan Loomis' brother, Mike Loomis, were arrested before a crowd of reporters. The three said "no comment" as a throng of reporters crowded their path to waiting police cars.

Later Tuesday, Kirk Calvert, who was identified as a manager at the pharmacy, also was arrested, but authorities did not immediately disclose the charges against him.

The Albany, N.Y., Times Union, which first disclosed the investigation, reported that investigators expected to arrest more than two dozen doctors, pharmacists and business owners on sealed New York indictments charging them with various felonies for unlawfully distributing steroids and other controlled substances, court records show.

The Times Union reported that investigators in the year-old case uncovered evidence that testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs may have been fraudulently prescribed over the Internet to current and former major league baseball and NFL players, college athletes, high school coaches, a former Mr. Olympia champion and another top contender in the bodybuilding competition.

The Loomises' downtown pharmacy contains a small retail store that sells mostly bodybuilding supplements, a high-tech drug-manufacturing laboratory and executive offices on the second floor.

Carl Metzger, narcotics commander for Orlando's metropolitan bureau of investigation, said the Loomises were arrested on a New York warrant, but could not give details. He said Albany County District Attorney David Soares was in Loomis' pharmacy, but Soares was not immediately available for comment.

Investigators loaded boxes into a truck. Metzger said steroids were among the confiscated items, but he said the legality of them was still being investigated.

"I can't tell you what percentage of their business was legal and how much involved stacking steroids, but there was a mix," Metzger said.

Tuesday's raids of two locations for Signature Pharmacy, which did about $36 million in business last year, could expose a long list of sports figures, celebrities and others who have turned to Internet pharmacies for illegal drugs such as steroids, law enforcement authorities told the newspaper.

In 2002, Signature Pharmacy reported revenue of about $500,000. Revenue topped $35 million last year, authorities told the newspaper.

Soares told the Times Union his office pursued the case, in part, because New York has some of the strictest prescription drug laws in the country. In addition, Signature Pharmacy last year did an estimated $6 million in business in New York, he said.

"We're arresting young men on street corners every day for selling drugs," he told the newspaper. "Signature did $30 million last year ... $250,000 in Albany County."

Steroid purchasers usually have to pay high retail prices for their drugs, in part because many avoid seeking reimbursement from insurance carriers to avoid detection. Mostly, they use cash, checks and credit cards to pay for the drugs.

"It's a complete perversion of the medical system," Christopher Baynes, an Albany County prosecutor assigned exclusively to the case for almost a year, told the Times Union.

Some companies have enlisted unethical doctors who blindly write prescriptions for as little as $25 each, according to court documents filed in Albany, Orlando and in a related federal case in Rhode Island.

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