Student in steroids case enters guilty plea
Drug crime - The criminal justice major, 24, could be sentenced to five years in prison
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
NOELLE CROMBIE
A 24-year-old Portland man studying for an associate's degree in criminal justice pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to importing anabolic steroids from Thailand.
Nathaniel J. Ashby admitted to conspiring to import the drugs, a crime that carries as many as five years in prison. Ashby's attorney, assistant federal defender Gerald Needham, said his client should be eligible for probation under federal sentencing guidelines.
Ashby is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 2.
In what authorities described as an "extensive drug distribution" operation, Ashby is accused of illegally importing between 250,000 and 500,000 tablets of Methandrostenolone. He traveled to Thailand to purchase the drug, according to court records.
Needham said Ashby has no criminal history and is a full-time student.
"It's just a shame that he got involved in this," Needham said. "He has done everything in his power to make amends."
As part of the deal he struck with prosecutors, Ashby, who ran a Web site to arrange sales of the drug, agreed to cooperate with federal law enforcement officials.
Ashby, known online as Docfeelgood, also handed over the balances of two Swiss bank accounts.
The indictment names two other individuals, but status of the case against those men was unclear Monday. Their cases are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans, which shut down temporarily after Hurricane Katrina.
The investigation into Ashby began in 2003, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Deits told U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman. A New Orleans-based customs and immigration agent, relying on an informant, learned that Ashby ran a Web site and was traveling to Thailand to buy the drug. The informant told agents that he helped Ashby import and distribute the packages once the tablets arrived in the United States.