MESO-Rx

Anabolic Steroids

Juicepal busted?

That's an outrage. A lot of time.


The operation that led to Rivera's arrest and prosecution was a result of ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a collaborative partnership between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies meant to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and prosecute high-level members of drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and money laundering organizations and enterprises.
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Exhortae said:
tax evasion more than steroids nailed him
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In his plea agreement he admitted that he and his accomplices processed thousands of orders and received at least nearly 451 Bitcoin (BTC) — equivalent to nearly $11.75 million as of press time

He’s gunna have quite the tax bill.
 
This is why the government felt a 96-month sentence was appropriate...

The Court should sentence Rivera to the parties’ agreed upon sentence of 96 months in custody.

1 Rivera led an international scheme to distribute steroids and other substances
over the “dark web,” used several people in the United States to further his domestic distribution, and laundered proceeds through cash and cryptocurrency. His longstanding, sophisticated, illegal operation requires this kind of substantial sanction.

1 The Government respectfully urges the Court to adopt the sentencing guidelines
calculations from the plea agreement. The PSR appears to offer a confused calculation – it purports to rely on the conviction for conspiring to launder monetary funds, yet imports the drug trafficking guidelines into that calculation. As the Government reads the guidelines, the money laundering provisions are discrete and turn on considerations like the amount of laundered funds (the “loss amount”), the defendant’s knowledge of the underlying criminal activity, a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1956, and so on. That plea agreement correctly applies these calculations for both counts under the indictment, and groups them under Chapter Three. In any event, Probation ultimately joins the recommendation of 96 months.

The PSR accurately captures the nature of the offense conduct. Beginning before
2018 and continuing through 2021, Rivera led a worldwide distribution network for steroids and related substances. Operating on the “dark web” under the moniker, “JuicePal,” Rivera arranged and directed the distribution of these substances in at least forty-three states domestically and across the world, in Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Germany, and Australia. The scope of his distribution was substantial – in one seizure alone, investigators seized hundreds of vials of steroids and large quantities of capsules, which had an estimated value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This seizure, though significant, did little to disrupt the scheme. The parties have agreed for guidelines purposes that the distribution activity exceeds 60,000 units of Schedule III substances; the breadth and duration of the scheme more than justified that agreement.

Rivera’s scheme was sophisticated. As noted, he operated under the moniker
“JuicePal” on the dark web, using the anonymity of that portion of the internet to mask his identity and his operations. He used encrypted communications programs to shield his communications with coconspirators. And, he accepted payment using cryptocurrency, a commonly understood method of avoiding identification as the recipient of those funds. Rivera also worked with no fewer than four domestic coconspirators (who, for the most part, did not know his name). These individuals variously manufactured steroids for him, stored his steroids and the raw ingredients, shipped steroids to customers (who placed orders through the dark web), and received cash payments that were both remitted to Rivera and ploughed back into the scheme. Rivera sourced the raw materials for the scheme from China and had them provided to these conspirators, and directed their activity.

The scheme was also profitable. Rivera took in hundreds (if not thousands) of orders over the years he was being investigated (including from at least one professional bodybuilder). His “JuicePal” brand of steroids was known on dark-web steroids forums as a high-quality brand, and his own marketing showed that he ran a brisk business. The PSR documents the amount of Bitcoin that Rivera took in during the course of the scheme; at the lowest point of the market, that amount was still worth more than $1.4 million. The parties have reached an agreed-upon amount of loss for purposes of resolving the case; that amount reflects a conservative estimate of proceeds that were concealed or used to promote the scheme, and it is well supported by the facts of the case.

Finally, Rivera conducted his scheme from abroad. During the years of this
investigation, investigators found that Rivera (a United States Citizen) lived exclusively outside the United States. They assess that he lived in Asia and Russia. Indeed, when Rivera was arrested disembarking from an international flight in December 2021, it was the first time he had come to the United States in years. The facts of this case made clear that Rivera financed his lifestyle abroad by running this scheme, which he ran with success for years.

In this case, the recommended outcome – just one month short of the low end of the guidelines range as calculated in the plea agreement – is both necessary and sufficient. Principally, the nature and circumstances of the offense are eye-opening: Rivera led a long-standing scheme to distribute steroids all over the world. He did so with sophisticated means, taking advantage of the “dark web” and other anonymity tools to conduct the scheme, directing several co-conspirators, and profiting handsomely. He also did so from abroad, which had the effect (even if not his express intent) of further frustrating the efforts of U.S. law enforcement to apprehend him and stop his scheme. Nothing about the nature of this conduct suggests that a sentence out of step with the guidelines is appropriate.

So too, other core considerations under Section 3553(a) call for this sentence. Too
often, criminal actors adept at using the “dark web” and similar anonymity tools – such as those that disguise internet protocol addresses, encrypt communications, “tumble” virtual currency transactions to further mask the parties to a transaction, and so on – believe they can act with impunity because their activity is too difficult for law enforcement to find. Rivera was one of these individuals; his punishment must send a strong reminder that law enforcement is quite capable of infiltrating these schemes, and that the consequences for them are severe.

Similarly, the Court must look sternly upon the core of this activity, the successful
effort to distribute an overwhelming quantity of steroids. These kinds of drugs are well known for their harmful effects on users, and they are controlled for good reason. Moreover (and perhaps unique among controlled substances) steroids facilitate cheating – athletes use them to obtain unfair advantage, corrupting competition and notions of fair play and sportsmanship.

2 The consequences of steroid use are well known to the Court, and it should
not regard this offense conduct as a mild offense.
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Attachments

" . . . in one seizure alone, investigators seized hundreds of vials of steroids and large quantities of capsules, which had an estimated value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."

:rolleyes:

Only if each vial was worth $2,000

Math
 
"Rivera took in hundreds (if not thousands) of orders over the years he was being investigated (including from at least one professional bodybuilder)."
 
SkankHunt said:
I wonder what happened to the 4 domestic guys brewing for him…
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Some UGL called Bos Labs claimed he was one of his old brewers and opened up his own shop. Not sure if he’s still around….Curious if he ratted since he had no issues opening up shortly after the bust
 
malfeasance said:
If I am reading that correctly, he should have stayed abroad.
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Yes, he obviously wasn't aware of his being under investigation. His name was red flagged at some point and certainly when it found its way onto the passenger manifest for the flight that carried him into the USA.
Same thing happened to Oxymonster....

"OxyMonster," French drug dealer and competitive beard ...​

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gal-va...ler-beard-contest-sentenced-today-2018-10-09/
Its fair for Purple Panda to assume he will meet the same fate should he attempt repatriation for any reason at any point in time. His High School reunion committee should be notified and hopefully before plans for the parade are set in motion and before the float and flowers are ordered. Refunds for the deposits on such things traditionally are not given. Maybe they'll bring the party to him?
 
This hits home personally. I know him mostly from his personal forum alias before he became an online public sponsor. He was a regular poster just like many of us before all of this, and we were very close on GH15 forums between 2014-2018. Juicepal was just a small side thing for him at the time. Completely insane reading this article what it amounted to. Really sucks they threw the book at home. He was a stand up guy.
 
TheDieselZ said:
This hits home personally. I know him mostly from his personal forum alias before he became an online public sponsor. He was a regular poster just like many of us before all of this, and we were very close on GH15 forums between 2014-2018. Juicepal was just a small side thing for him at the time. Completely insane reading this article what it amounted to. Really sucks they threw the book at home. He was a stand up guy.
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I bet you that goof gh15 had something to rat him out for
 
Isrrike said:
Yup. Whatever happened to the forum it dropped off the face of the earth after he started sourcing all his fake shit
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Gh15 sounded so overrated to me, from all the stuff I heard about it over the years.
 
Isrrike said:
I bet you that goof gh15 had something to rat him out for
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No - I left gh15 for blast and cruise bc gh15 got weird as hell after 2016 and ended up getting banned from gh15 shortly after anyways. A lot of us left for that site and a lot of us who did started getting banned. B&C no longer around unfortunately, it was a decent site. Didn’t gh15 forums go down like 5 years ago anyways? Stopped keeping up with it after 2016.
 
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