Berwick Man Charged With Conspiring To Manufacture And Distribute Anabolic Steroids | USAO-MDPA

SCRANTON – The Pennsylvania Middle District Attorney announced that Casey Seesholtz, 31, of Berwick, Pennsylvania, was charged on a criminal briefing with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute anabolic steroids. Seesholtz was charged on August 27, 2020 and pleaded guilty on September 3, 2020, but the information remained under lock and key until recently.

According to acting US attorney Bruce D. Brandler, the information alleges that Seesholtz conspired between October 2017 and October 2019 to sell and manufacture the anabolic steroids methylstenbolone (known as M-Sten) and dimethazine (known as DMZ). Seesholtz pleaded guilty to manufacturing between 40,000 and 60,000 tablets of the anabolic steroid in a warehouse in Berwick, Pennsylvania. He also admitted to selling some of the anabolic steroids through a store front in Kingston, Pennsylvania, while others were being sold online by his co-conspirators. In the course of the investigation, federal agents seized tablet presses and capsule machines.

The case has been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, and Homeland Security Investigations. U.S. Assistant Attorney Phillip J. Caraballo is pursuing the case.

The charges are part of an investigation by the Anti-Drug Organized Crime Task Forces (OCDETF). The OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the senior drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations threatening the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence, and inter-agency approach that counteracts the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies criminal networks.

The judge imposes a penalty after a guilty finding, taking into account the applicable federal criminal laws and the federal criminal court order.

The federal maximum sentence for this offense is 10 years imprisonment, a supervised release after imprisonment, and a fine. According to federal sentencing guidelines, the judge must also consider and weigh a number of factors, including the nature, circumstances and gravity of the offense; the history and characteristics of the defendant; and the need to punish the accused, protect the public, and care for the accused’s educational, professional, and medical needs. For these reasons, the maximum legal penalty for the offense is not an accurate indicator of the possible penalty for a particular defendant.

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