{"id":992180,"date":"2026-08-10T02:29:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/992180\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T02:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:29:20","slug":"4-phoenix-area-residents-accused-of-running-nationwide-anabolic-steroid-ring-out-of-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/992180\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Phoenix-area residents accused of running nationwide anabolic steroid ring out of the Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-71739176-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-653d32e2=\"\">Samples of the anabolic steroid Danabol DS, confiscated in a police bust earlier in the day, stand on display at police headquarters August 29, 2006 in Berlin, Germany. <strong class=\"source\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\">(Sean Gallup\/Getty Images)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\"><strong>PHOENIX<\/strong> &#8211; Four Valley residents are facing up to a decade in federal prison after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdal\/pr\/four-arizona-residents-charged-anabolic-steroid-trafficking-conspiracy-homeland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>prosecutors say<\/strong><\/a> they ran a yearslong illegal steroid trafficking ring out of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/phoenix\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Phoenix<\/strong> <\/a>metro area, shipping performance-enhancing drugs across the country.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">A federal grand jury in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/al\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Alabama<\/strong><\/a> returned an indictment Friday charging Phoenix resident Laura Stratton, 43, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/buckeye\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Buckeye<\/strong><\/a> resident Brenna Eppley, 48, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/phoenix\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Avondale<\/strong><\/a> residents Benjamin Stratton, 39, and Karissa Stratton, 33, with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute anabolic steroids. Investigators say the group operated the nationwide ring between October 2023 and July 2026.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Federal court filings allege Laura Stratton personally shipped potent steroid mixtures \u2014 including <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC6189634\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>trenbolone enanthate<\/strong><\/a> and various testosterone compounds \u2014 from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Arizona<\/strong><\/a> to southern Alabama in late March.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">As part of the bust, federal authorities are moving to seize two homes in Phoenix and Avondale, three vehicles, and multiple cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts that prosecutors claim were bought with drug proceeds or used to run the operation.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\"><strong>READ MORE: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/news\/hegseth-announces-annual-testosterone-deficiency-screenings-service-members\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Hegseth announces annual testosterone deficiency screenings for service members<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Team effort in AZ:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The cross-country pipeline was dismantled following a joint investigation by federal agents and local Arizona law enforcement, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/mesa\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Mesa<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/avondaleaz.gov\/government\/departments\/police\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Avondale police<\/strong><\/a> departments, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dea.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Drug Enforcement Administration<\/strong><\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uspis.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>U.S. Postal Inspection Service<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">All four suspects made their initial court appearances in Arizona and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/mt\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Montana<\/strong><\/a> earlier this week. They are scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Mobile, Ala., on Aug. 26. If convicted, each faces up to 10 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> Information in this report was gathered from the United States Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/phoenix\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/avondale\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Avondale<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/buckeye\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buckeye<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/al\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alabama<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Samples of the anabolic steroid Danabol DS, confiscated in a police bust earlier in the day, stand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":992181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[30014,5229,5643,52912,1587,10439,6082,1588,50,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-992180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-al","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-avondale","tag-az","tag-buckeye","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-maricopa-county","tag-news","tag-phoenix","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117068861536794181","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}