New York ? Officials Monday announced that 124 people across the country have been charged with illegally manufacturing and selling anabolic steroids over the Internet.

The two-year joint investigation by federal and local officials has resulted in the shutdown of 56 illegal steroid laboratories, said agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Christopher Lance, 36, of Melville, N.Y., committed suicide shortly after he was arrested two weeks ago.

“It’s an incredibly tragic development and a sad reminder of what can happen when someone gets involved with these dangerous drugs,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Monday of Lance’s death.

The attorney for Lance, who faced more than two years in prison if convicted of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, declined to comment.

Lance was arrested Sept. 12, along with his wife, Debra Rosenbach, 33, his mother, Karen Lance, 55, of Massapequa; and Romolo Squiteri, 25, of West Babylon. They all were charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, as well.

The steroid ring, which operated a lab out of Lance’s home, was one of three illegal steroid operations that were shut down on Long Island as part of the overall investigation, federal officials said Monday at the DEA’s regional headquarters in Manhattan.

Typically, the steroid labs bought the solid chemical in bulk from China, brought it into the U.S. illegally and then converted it into an injectable form that body builders and others prefer, DEA and FDA officials said.

The operators of the labs then sold the injectable steroids over the Internet or, in some cases, the kits to convert the steroid powder into an injectable form, officials said.

Some of the labs also manufactured and sold other banned substances, including human growth hormone or insulin growth factor, which are also popular in the illegal body-building and sports underground, officials said.