California Man Sentenced in Anabolic Steroids and Pill Distribution Conspiracy

Acting United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Fernando Lopez-Reyes, 35, of Colton, California, was sentenced today in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute anabolic steroids, methamphetamine, N-Ethylhexedrone, and Alprazolam, and conspiracy to launder money. Chief United States District Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Lopez-Reyes to imprisonment for a term of 96 months. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, Lopez-Reyes will begin a 3-year term of supervised release.

Lopez-Reyes was a member of a drug trafficking organization (DTO) that produced and distributed anabolic steroids and other controlled substances to customers throughout the country using a private Facebook group as an online storefront and the United States Postal Service to ship the drugs to locations throughout the country. In addition to anabolic steroids, the DTO marketed and sold pharmaceutical drugs described as Xanax and Adderall. Legitimately prescribed pharmaceutical Adderall is a Schedule II controlled substance containing amphetamine salts. However, laboratory testing revealed that the pills marketed as “Adderall” by the DTO were counterfeit and contained methamphetamine, also a Schedule II controlled substance. The “Xanax” distributed by the DTO contained N-Ethylhexedrone, a Scheduled I controlled substance. “Xanax” is a brand name for Alprazolam, a Schedule IV controlled substance. Alprazolam was also confirmed by laboratory testing to be present in substances recovered by investigators.

Lopez-Reyes operated a clandestine laboratory from an apartment he maintained in Colton, California, specifically for that purpose of producing finished anabolic steroids. Lopez-Reyes also imported anabolic steroid precursors and other controlled substances from China. Sentencing is pending for Lopez-Reyes’s codefendants.

Customers purchasing controlled substances from the DTO were required to use cryptocurrency and cash to pay. The DTO used peer-to-peer digital payments platforms to accept payments for controlled substances from customers and to transfer funds among and between themselves. In addition to the use of digital payment platforms, the DTO used various other methods designed to protect the memberships’ anonymity and to provide security for the criminal organization from law enforcement and other criminal organizations.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF. This case was investigated by the Omaha offices of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.