Northern Kentucky man admits role in scheme to sell steroids from Kazakhstan and Latvia
A Northern Kentucky man admitted to ordering performance-enhancing steroids from outside the country in an attempt to redistribute those substances to others via mail.
Brian Chekoff, 52, appeared in federal court in Covington Friday and pleaded guilty to a single count of attempted possession of steroids with the intent to distribute, the only charge stemming from his November 2023 indictment.
Stefanie Durstock, Chekoff’s attorney, declined to comment.
In November 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City seized packages from Kazakhstan and Latvia containing steroids. They were addressed to a post office box in Burlington, Kentucky.
The customs declaration on one of the packages listed the contents as “sport supplements,” prosecutors said in Chekoff's plea agreement.
Federal agents then made what they called a controlled delivery of the steroids at the Burlington post office and confronted Chekoff’s wife after she signed for the packages, prosecutors said.
More: 'A tragic, tragic situation': Man gets prison for mishandling gun, fatally shooting 16-year-old girl
Authorities also searched Chekoff’s apartment in Warsaw, Kentucky, where they seized thousands of needles, empty Priority Mail packages, a drug ledger and an additional 1,600 dosage units of steroids.
Prosecutors say Chekoff admitted during an interview that the packages were his and that the business listed on the post office box was fake.
Two years before his confrontation with federal agents, he met someone online who paid him to receive and reship steroids, according to prosecutors’ account of Chekoff’s interview. He got instructions on breaking down the packages to send the steroids to different addresses. He was paid $50 per package in return and took some of the steroids for his own use.
Chekoff used at least seven different post office boxes to receive dozens of international shipments of steroids, some of which were seized by Customs and Border Patrol agents in July 2022 and that he admitted were also meant for him and distribution.
The charge Chekoff pleaded guilty to carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison and a potential $500,000 fine.
He’s scheduled to appear in court again June 20 for sentencing before U.S. District Judge David Bunning.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKY man pleads in scheme to sell steroids from Kazakhstan, Latvia
