3rd Battalion, 7th Marines PHOTO
09.12.2019

Two United States Marines Punished for Illegal Steroid Shipment

The Marines were involved in shipping a personal supply of anabolic steroids from California to Kuwait.

A private first class and a lance corporal were administratively separated from the Marine Corps after being linked to an international steroid shipment. In cases of military separation, Marines are removed from active duty but remain in the U.S. Armed Services.

The Marines were busted when an Army Criminal Investigation Division agent saw undeclared vials when a package was scanned by an X-ray at the Kuwait Joint Military Mail Terminal in 2018. The vials were not on the shipment’s customs form which prompted increased scrutiny of the package.

The use of U.S. Military Mail to import and export steroids is illegal.

The agent opened the package and found four 10-milliliter vials labeled as 250 mg/ml of testosterone enanthate. Agents also discovered 60 tablets of Cyotam 20 (tamoxifen citrate).

The steroid package was shipped from a private first class in Twentynine Palms, California. It was addressed and delivered to a lance corporal stationed at the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait. Both Marines were with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, based in Twentynine Palms.

The Marine deployed in Kuwait admitted that he was expecting the package from his friend in Twentynine Palms. However, he insisted that he was only expecting to receive some legal “testosterone boosters” that he thought were “similar to protein but better”.

The Marine’s feigned ignorance was exposed when investigators learned that he ordered syringes from Amazon.com shortly after receiving the injectable steroid shipment. He also discussed how to use steroids with his friend in messages exchanged via Snapchat.

The steroid-related disciplinary action was publicly revealed after the Marine Corps Times publication obtained military investigative documents via a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request.

Maj Kendra Motz, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marine Corps, confirmed the nonjudicial punishment for the two Marines when contacted by the Marine Corps Times.

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