Steroid bust results in four arrests

By Anna Koeppel

Published Sept. 28, 2007

A federal steroid trafficking investigation that has lasted nearly two years netted three arrests in Columbia and one in Nixa last month.

Bryan G. Wilson of Kansas City. Mo., formerly of Columbia, and April D. Wilson of Columbia were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to distribute and distributing anabolic steroids.

Columbia Police Department Sgt. Scott Young said Bryan Wilson was arrested Sept. 15 at a Columbia UPS Store. Young supervises the narcotics unit of the police department.

April Wilson was arrested at her home on Shale Ridge Court in Columbia.

The two were indicted by a grand jury on Sept. 21, said Don Ledford, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Office, Western District of Missouri.

Bryan Wilson and April Wilson filed for divorce in May 2006, according to court documents.

Jason Varner was also arrested in Columbia. Varner was arrested on suspicion of possessing with the intent to distribute anabolic steroids. Varner was arrested at a commuter parking lot near the intersection of U.S. 63 and MO-AC, Young said.

A fourth Missouri resident, Mikal Gunn Schrage, was arrested on suspicion of possessing with the intent to distribute anabolic steroids at his residence in Nixa, Mo. Schrage and Varner have yet to be indicted by a grand jury.

All four people arrested in Missouri are free on bond, Ledford said.

In addition to local law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service combined efforts on Operation Raw Deal, as the national operation was called, and Operation Juice Box, the Missouri operation.

Ledford said investigations will continue but did not say specifically what those investigations might include.

"It's too early to talk about speculations of where customers are from or whether anyone else might be charged or where the investigation is going," Ledford said.

"The initial investigation was started by the DEA, and they had been working at that for several months before they got us involved," Young said.

Young said the police began working on the investigation around April when the DEA came to them.

"With multi-state deals and international-type deals, the DEA is much better suited for that, but we know Columbia better," Young said.

Young said one detective from the police department started working on the operation part time in April by doing surveillance and tracking packages. At the time of the first arrest and issuance of two search warrants, seven officers from the police department were working on the operation.

Search warrants were issued for residences on Bay Point Lane and Shale Ridge Court in Columbia, where April Wilson was arrested.

Ledford said the Internet played a role in the trafficking and the investigation. He called the operation "a combination of modern technology and old-fashioned police work."

"I think that the law enforcement agents were following the international tracking activity, and people often assume they are anonymous when they're online, but that's not necessarily the case," he said. "All of that is still part of the evidence that has been seized and is being investigated. It's too early to talk about speculations of where customers are from or whether anyone else might be charged or where the investigation is going."

Postal inspector Dan Taylor said about 1,800 postal inspectors are located throughout the country based on need.

"We're not necessarily going to be in every single post office, but we cover every single post office," Taylor said.

Ledford said the distributors were purchasing steroids in raw powder form from China. He said packages that came through the Postal Service were clearly marked as being from China.

"At that point, what they were doing was converting powder to pills or liquid," Ledford said. "In the conversion process, there's no health agency overseeing that, no regulating that's ensuring the purity of what they're distributing."

Ledford said contamination occurs domestically when distributors combine the chemicals in their homes, garages or bathtubs.

"You don't really know what you're getting," Ledford said. "You don't know what kinds of chemicals are mixed in, and all steroids are dangerous."