Lithuania seizes about 3,000 vials of suspected doping peptides

Lithuania’s Customs Criminal Service (MKT) says it has seized about 3,000 vials that officers suspect contain prohibited doping substances, most of them peptides that are widely sold online. In a release dated Oct 23, 2026, the agency said a self-employed Vilnius resident is suspected of mailing the vials to buyers in several foreign countries. Customs said the case follows an earlier large doping seizure this year: an April operation against a Vilnius company suspected of selling peptides online.

How the case unfolded

According to customs, the pretrial investigation began when officers of the Vilnius Territorial Customs found several hundred vials of suspected prohibited medicinal products in parcels being sent out of Lithuania. Officers then intercepted another parcel holding 300 clear vials, which they also suspect contain doping substances.

Investigators say they traced the parcels to the Vilnius resident, who is suspected of sending them to various countries abroad. The release does not name those countries. A search of the person’s home turned up 2,056 more vials, bringing the total to about 3,000.

The substances customs listed include BPC-157, TB-500, KPV, ARA-290, CJC-1295 DAC, MOTS-c, ipamorelin, sermorelin, AOD 9604, kisspeptin-10 and tesamorelin, among others. The agency put the preliminary value of the seized products at more than €100,000. Daily Baltic, citing the public broadcaster LRT, reported the same figures, as did LRT, 15min and Vilniaus diena.

Detention, cars and frozen assets

The suspect was detained on suspicion of illegally possessing doping substances with intent to distribute them and of doping smuggling, customs said. The person was later released under preventive measures: a written pledge not to leave and an obligation to register periodically at a police station. A prosecutor from the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office is leading the investigation.

Customs also said officers noticed during the investigation that the suspect had luxury cars worth €170,000 at their disposal. To secure any possible confiscation, authorities placed a temporary restriction on the suspect’s property, covering movable and immovable assets and bank accounts. None of this is a finding of guilt. The case is at the pretrial stage, and the release does not include any response from the suspect.

The April case

The agency said this was not its first large doping seizure of the year. In a release in April, customs said that on April 20 officers seized about 6,000 parcels prepared for shipment abroad from several locations in Vilnius. It said a Vilnius company was suspected of selling the products online, mostly BPC-157, and of shipping them to the US, Canada, Australia, France, Sweden and other countries. By the agency’s early count, officers confiscated about 40,000 bottles holding 2.5 million capsules.

In that release, customs said the World Anti-Doping Agency and Lithuania’s anti-doping agency had added BPC-157 to their prohibited lists in 2022–2023. It also said offenders in that doping smuggling case face a fine or up to six years in prison. WADA’s current 2026 Prohibited List names BPC-157 under S0, non-approved substances, which are banned in sport at all times. Our report on the 2026 list covers where the other peptides sit.

What is not known

Customs describes the contents only as suspected doping substances, and it has not published laboratory results confirming what the vials contain. The release does not say which countries the parcels were addressed to or how long the alleged shipping went on. It does not link the October case to the April company case. No indictment or court date has been announced, and the suspect has not been convicted of anything.