Duracap Labs Co-Founder Beny Mesika and Wife Elizabeth Kuecher Face Steroid Smuggling Charges in Superseding Indictment

Durcacap Labs co-founder Beny Mesika and his wife Elizabeth Kuecher have been charged with multiple counts of anabolic steroid trafficking and steroid smuggling in a superseding indictment filed on December 19, 2017. The superseding indictment replaces an earlier indictment naming Mesika and his Duracap Labs co-founder Wesley Houser IV (aka Wes Houser).

Mesika’s and his wife’s legal predicament looks particularly bleak now that his business partner Wes Houser has decided to cooperate with the government in exchange for leniency. Houser pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy in April 2017. Houser is only identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the new superseding indictment. Houser has yet to be sentenced pending his assistance in the case against Mesika and Kuecher.

Duracap Labs was one of the truly big fish in the prohormone and steroidal supplement category. Hundreds of supplement companies marketed and distributed synthetic steroids masquerading as dietary supplement but few of them actually manufactured their own supplements. The rest of them turned to contract manufacturers. That is where Duracap Labs came in.

Duracap Labs may have been the largest dietary supplement contract manufacturing company to specialize in prohormone and synthetic steroid production. Its core business involved formulating, manufacturing, creating and distributing private label supplements for a variety of other sports nutrition companies. Some of its notable clients included supplement companies such as Blunt Force Nutrition, Prime Nutrition, Alpha Male Formulations, Silverback Nutrition and Wyked Labs.

Duracap Labs is accused of distributing at least five different synthetic steroids. Federal prosecutors seem to be particularly concerned with methasterone (aka Superdrol) as one of the Scheduled III anabolic steroids used as an ingredient in several products manufactured by Duracap Labs. 

These products included Mutant Plexx, Mass Destruction, Mass Trauma, Dzine and Epivar. The feds alleged that methasterone was not declared as an ingredient on the product label. This is a very interesting and curious fact because it suggests that Duracap Labs simply added methasterone as the undisclosed active ingredient to many of its prohormone and steroidal supplement regardless of what the label claimed or its clients had requested.

The feds’ focus on Superdrol may be due to the fact that a North Carolina man is suing Duracap Labs and its owners after he suffered drug-induced liver injury and required a liver transplant after using Mass Destruction. Marcus Joyner used Blunt Force Nutriton’s Mass Destruction for three or four weeks in October 2013. Joyner required a liver transplant two months later. Joyner holds Duracap Labs and its executives responsible for his life-altering condition. The civil lawsuit has been placed on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case.

With the assistance of Houser in their case against Mesika, federal prosecutors have been able to expand the charges against Houser and introduce new charges against Houser’s wife, Elizabeth Kuecher.

Mesika and Kuecher owned several other companies in addition to Duracap Labs that were involved in smuggling and/or distributing synthetic steroids. These companies included Adrenaline Nutrition Supplements (ANS), Lolcc Productions LLC (Lolcc) and Twin Peaks F LLC (Twin Peaks). These companies also manufactured and distributed Schedule III controlled anabolic steroids as “dietary supplements”. 

Mesika and Kuecher were also allegedly behind the smuggling of illegal synthetic steroid ingredients using a variety of concealment methods. One example of a concealment used by the couple’s companies and its Chinese chemical suppliers involved the use of hidden compartments in large drums containing amino acids and herbal ingredients. The methasterone and other synthetic steroids were hidden at the bottom of the drum. This method was used to smuggle dozens of kilograms of dymethazine (DMZ), “methylclost”, “tren”, “M1A”, “Epi”, “Trenavar”, “M1”, “Arimistane” and “DMAA”.

Mesika is represented by attorney Bruce Harvey. Kuecher is represented by attorney Kimberly Cornwell. Harvey has previously disputed unindicted co-conspirator Houser’s allegations as the rantings of a man willing to say anything to save himself.

Source:

Robbins, D. (January 12, 2018). Atlanta couple accused of smuggling steroids. Retrieved from myajc.com/news/crime--law/new-indictment-accuses-atlanta-couple-smuggling-steroids/oQC6SxTIriBhmhwGZZKLlJ/