Lab Owner Indicted in Steroids Case

A Fountain Valley laboratory owner, a Bay Area sports doctor and three other Californians were indicted on charges of running one of the largest black market steroid operations in the nation, with customers ranging from teen-agers to weightlifters and professional football players, the U.S. attorney here announced Wednesday.

The 32-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in San Jose does not identify the users, but U.S. Atty. Joseph P. Russoniello said “there were several” football players whose identities will be revealed later.

Russoniello said the “most critical aspect of the case” was that the sellers peddled the muscle-building drugs to teen-agers. Authorities say use of the drugs by youths can stunt their physical development.

‘Thousands of Gyms’

“It was a widespread distribution business that went to . . . thousands of gyms,” said Jeffrey Freedman, associate chief counsel for the Food and Drug Administration, which helped investigate the case.

The indictment named Steven A. Coons, 28, of Santa Clara, as the leader of the ring and charged that he and his wife, Caroline Coons, 23, deposited $1.6 million into bank accounts in 1984-86 from the sale of the drugs.

In addition, the indictment charged Jeffrey Feliciano, 38, of Fountain Valley, with making anabolic steroids in a laboratory that he initially set up in the attic of a Fountain Valley gymnasium. Feliciano, who claimed to be a researcher, faces state charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute steroids in Orange County.

The drugs were advertised in sports magazines and Steven Coons and Feliciano are charged with mail fraud.

Coons and Feliciano promoted the drugs through promotional literature as East German drugs, when in fact Feliciano manufactured some of them in his clandestine laboratory, the indictment alleged. Coons paid $860,000 for the steroids manufactured by Feliciano, prosecutors said.

“Apparently there is some mystique” about steroids from East Germany, U.S. Atty. Joseph Burton said.

He said Feliciano, the only defendant not yet under arrest, is free on bail from 1986 Orange County charges in connection with his laboratory, Fountain Valley Research.

In May, 1986, the Orange County district attorney’s office filed criminal conspiracy charges against Feliciano and six other men accused of manufacturing and distributing steroids.

Also at that time, officials confiscated 188 vials of the drug at Feliciano’s Fountain Valley lab. Police said then that he was converting steroids to a liquid, injectable form at his lab and then selling them to college and professional athletes here and out of state.

Body-Building Guru

Feliciano has been described a body-building guru who became a confidant and adviser to high school and college athletes in Orange County. He has reportedly written many articles on steroids for body-building magazines and gained respect from many top athletes, including former Rams All-Pro Jack Youngblood, who adopted some of Feliciano’s weightlifting techniques.

Neither Feliciano nor his attorney could be reached for comment Wednesday. But at the time of Feliciano’s arrest in January, 1986, Fullerton College football coach Hal Sherbeck said Feliciano had lectured him on the dangers of using anabolic steroids.

“He told me all the bad things about steroids,” Sherbeck said then. “He told me that any physicians who prescribed them were bad news.”

Feliciano was accused Wednesday of conspiring to conduct a clandestine prescription drug distribution and manufacturing business, eight counts of mail fraud and 23 counts of violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Doctor Charged

The indictment charged that Coons obtained another $765,000 worth of steroids with help from Dr. John Perzik, 50, of Milpitas. Like Coons, Perzik was charged with conspiracy and violating federal provisions against selling the restricted drugs without prescriptions. Also charged was Charles Lewis Silcox, 25, of Santa Clara.

The indictment said the main purchasers of the drugs were located in Denver, Baltimore and Fort Smith, Ark. Drugs sold included a human growth hormone and such male hormones as testosterone cypionate. Such drugs build muscles but can cause cancer, heart disease, stroke and sterility.

Federal officials began investigating the black market in steroids in 1985. The illegal manufacture and sale of steroids was then thought to amount to as much as $100 million a year nationally.

The investigation has resulted in indictments of 59 people, including several in San Diego in May. Seven people have been sentenced to prison and fines of $1 million have been imposed.