Columbia pair pleads guilty to steroid manufacturing charges
Published Aug. 29, 2008
A Columbia woman, April D. Wilson, 33, was the second to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and money laundering Thursday morning.
The first plea came Monday in Jefferson City's Federal Court. Her ex-husband, Bryan G. Wilson, 39, formerly of Columbia, pleaded guilty to charges originating from his March 7 indictment.
April Wilson's Thursday conviction was the latest in a long series of events stretching back to September 2007. It is the fourth conviction collected from Operation Juice Box, a federal investigation run by the Missouri western district U.S. Attorney's Office.
"Back in September of 2007 we actually arrested and charged four Missouri residents," U.S. Attorney's office spokesman Don Ledford said. "Two of those are the two that just pled guilty (the Wilsons) and there was another defendant from Nixa, Mo., who earlier this month pled guilty. The fourth has also pled guilty."
According to the office, which is part of the U.S. Justice Department, Bryan Wilson was arrested Sept. 15, 2007, when he picked up a package from China containing approximately 1 kilogram of raw steroid powder at Columbia UPS Inc. store.
Shortly afterward, federal authorities searched his Kansas City home and found numerous items used for making anabolic steroids. Officers also found two large pill presses as well as other laboratory equipment and what appeared to be the finished product.
Bryan Wilson was found to be in possession of more than 3,795 grams of testosterone and other steroid components. Authorities seized about $60,000 from Bryan Wilson's home and bank accounts.
Under federal statutes, Bryan Wilson is subject to a sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $1 million. April Wilson will face a sentence of up to 15 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000. Together, they admitted to laundering more than $874,023 from their steroid trafficking operation between 2003 and 2007.
The arrests and convictions are a result of Operation Raw Deal, a federal program dating to December 2005. The operation is the largest steroid enforcement action in U.S. history. It targeted the illegal manufacturing and trafficking of anabolic steroids and their raw materials, mainly from China.
Operation Juice Box and Raw Deal both center around underground anabolic laboratories and numerous U.S.-based Web sites distributing materials, or conversion kits, which are necessary to convert raw steroid powders into finished product.
John F. Wood, an attorney for Western District of Missouri U.S. Attorney's Office, said he is pleased with the role Operation Juice Box is playing in the larger investigation.
Wood still believes the convictions underscore "the scope of the problem of dangerous performance-enhancing drugs that are being processed in crude, homemade labs and distributed with no regulatory safeguards," he said.
