Drug Free Sport New Zealand has begun proceedings against up to 100 athletes found using a website that sold steroids online.
Dozens of athletes from a range of sporting codes, from weekend club players and upwards, have been identified as having interacted with the website Clenbuterol NZ.
Earlier this year the operator of the website, Josh Townshend, received a two-year jail sentence for advertising, possessing and supplying prescription medicines.
The athletes involved, if found guilty of doping violations, could face a ban from all sport.
It's understood no All Blacks or Olympians are involved, but the investigation does reach as far as secondary school sports.
"It's been previously stated that few, if any, of the prohibited substances available for purchase on the Clenbuterol NZ website were of pharmaceutical grade. Who knows what people were consuming or injecting themselves with," DFSNZ chief executive Nick Paterson said in a statement.
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"To have identified approximately 100 athletes using a website selling these substances is extremely disappointing to us at DFSNZ, and should also be of great concern to the wider sporting community."
Each case will be heard on an individual basis, with proceedings already underway. They're expected to continue into late 2018.
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