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An Alabama man has been sentenced to two years probation for smuggling illegal bodybuilding supplements from China before mislabeling them and selling them throughout the Rio Grande Valley.
Robert Lance Schuffert was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Randy Crane in McAllen Thursday morning, court records indicate.
Crane also ordered a $20,000 monetary judgment against Schuffert.
Schuffert had been selling Ostarin MK-2866, which contained a synthetic chemical that mimics the effects of testosterone and other anabolic steroids.
The synthetic chemical can have fatal consequences and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017 issued a public safety alert about the synthetic chemical, which is called SARMS — or selective androgen receptor modulators.
They are linked to life-threatening reactions like liver toxicity and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
Schuffert confessed to smuggling the product from China. To avoid FDA scrutiny, the product was mislabeled as “for lab rat use only” and “for research purposes only.”
He then sold it to local retailers with marketing instructions that guaranteed results and purported the product to be “pharmaceutical grade.”
He was convicted of a similar scheme in North Carolina in 2021 and served a year in federal prison.
