SAN DIEGO -- Fourteen people were charged in San Diego as part of an international crackdown on illegal steroid labs and the Internet suppliers of raw steroid powder and steroid conversion kits, authorities announced Monday.

A two-year investigation -- dubbed "Operation Raw Deal" -- began after a previous operation shut down the illegal importation of anabolic steroids by major Mexican manufacturers and distributors, authorities said.

Underground facilities filled the void by ordering raw steroid powders from foreign sources, including China, and manufactured their steroid products in makeshift labs in basements, garages and kitchens.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Coughlin called the conditions in the underground labs unsanitary and "horrifying."

The underground labs list their products on Internet bodybuilding Web sites, chat rooms and discussion boards, the link through which potential steroid users gains access to information on dosing instructions, how to order, how to avoid detection by law enforcement and how to create underground labs, prosecutors said.

Since the operations began in December 2005, more than 50 underground labs have been dismantled and 124 steroid traffickers have been arrested, authorities said.

In addition, assets totaling more than $6.5 million in U.S. currency have been seized and hundreds of thousands of vials and pills of anabolic steroids have been confiscated, authorities said.

"This painstaking investigation and the resulting indictments mark an important turning point in the coordinated work of our federal law enforcement agencies throughout the nation to disrupt and expose the illegal importation and distribution of anabolic steroids using the Internet," said Karen P. Hewitt, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California.

Hewitt said the takedown of the underground labs marked a step toward stopping the distribution of illegal steroids on the Internet.

"Every bit matters," the prosecutor said. "Every lab counts."