Major League Baseball officials have taken steps to contact federal investigators involved in a crackdown on the import of Chinese steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to determine whether baseball players are entangled in the probe, an MLB spokesman said Monday.

Hours after the Drug Enforcement Administration announced the 10-country operation that led to raids of more than four dozen underground U.S.-based labs, the spokesman, Rich Levin, said MLB was being “proactive” in seeking information from federal investigators. He declined to describe the nature of the contacts.

“We are actively seeking information,” he said. “I don’t think (specifics are) appropriate right now. This thing just broke.”

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league would work with the DEA and other government agencies to support the probe, but also declined to offer specifics.

As details of the massive operation emerged Monday, the professional leagues found themselves facing another major government-led investigation into performance-enhancing drugs that could implicate their athletes as drug users or purchasers even if none ever faces criminal charges.

Federal officials said the 18-month investigation targeted steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs from China and resulted in 124 arrests in 27 states, the majority since last Thursday. Officials from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and World Anti-Doping Agency participated in the action, offering expertise and support.

Mexico, Germany, Denmark, Thailand, Canada, Australia, Belgium and Sweden assisted in the operation, and dozens of raids and arrests were reported in those countries. Chinese officials also cooperated, promising to accept packets of information from investigators to pursue manufacturers and distributors within their borders, the DEA said.

No well-known professional athletes have yet been connected to the crackdown, dubbed Operation Raw Deal, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said Monday. But DEA officials said they have begun compiling a database of clients of the seized labs and purchasers of illicit steroids for the use of all U.S. law enforcement agencies. The client list is being assembled from hundreds of thousands of e-mails and Internet exchanges, officials have said.

Payne said the DEA and U.S. attorney’s offices involved in the operation had not decided whether to hand over to the sports leagues information that implicates players.