Police say they've broken up a drug-trafficking and money-laundering operation spanning three provinces and centred in Fredericton. The bust involved anabolic steroids and a gym outside the city.

Eighteen people were arrested Thursday in what police said was a bust that affected areas from the Maritimes to Ontario.

Corporal Gilles Blinn of the RCMP said a two-year investigation, code-named Operation Jellybean, culminated in raids at seven homes and six businesses in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario. 

"Everyone who was arrested has been released, and charges are pending," Blinn said.

One business, a gym just outside Fredericton, has been put under a restraining order as offence-related property.

Staff Sgt. Ed MacEchern of the RCMP Drug Section said charges could include money laundering, trafficking and conspiracy to traffic cocaine, marijuana, prescription drugs and anabolic steroids.

"[Operation Jellybean] started off, and remained throughout, a cocaine investigation," MacEchern said. "This was based on disrupting a cocaine industry here locally, in Fredericton. And to do that, we had to step outside Fredericton to some extent. During the investigation, we also encountered the sale of anabolic steroids and so on, and it caused us to go in that direction as well."

Among the items seized were cash, vehicles and drugs including steroids, prescription drugs and narcotics.

Police couldn't put a figure on the amount of steroids seized, but say as much as $600,000 a year was sold to a single buyer in the city.