A former Weston, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to leading a $2.25 million conspiracy to sell anabolic steroids over the Internet.

Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that Aaron Vincent Schweidler, 32, of Smithfield, N.C., formerly of Weston, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to participating in a conspiracy to manufacture and distribute anabolic steroids and to a conspiracy to commit money laundering. Schweidler admitted that he and co-conspirators operated an Internet-based company called Power Trip, which sold various anabolic steroids to customers (including athletes and minors) throughout the United States.

Co-defendants Nicole R. Lyne, 26, also of Smithfield, N.C., and formerly of Weston; Michael G. Peters, 27, of Pelham, N.H.; and Samuel C. Miller IV, 30, of Annapolis, Md., have also pleaded guilty, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office

Conspirators required customers to pay for the steroids by using various debit cards. Customers used names and account numbers for these debit cards that were provided by conspirators. Conspirators used stolen identities to produce or obtain debit cards, such as Green Dot MoneyPak, MyVanilla, ReloadIT, NetSpend ReloadIT and BlackHawk. They required their customers to send payments to these cards in order to conceal and disguise the proceeds of the illegal transactions.

Schweidler began operating this online anabolic steroid distribution business in late 2011 in Utah. Schweidler quickly sought out assistance from other conspirators, including Peters, to help collect the proceeds from the illegal drug sales. Eventually Schweidler relocated the operation to North Carolina, until relocating again in 2013 to the Kansas City, Mo., area.

Schweidler was primarily responsible for the manufacture and distribution of the steroids and he managed the collection of illegal drug proceeds. Initially Peters’s role was primarily to collect the illegal drug proceeds from customers who were required to pay via MoneyGram and Western Union, and also later via debit cards. Peters eventually joined Schweidler in North Carolina to continue the operation. Over time Peters also became more involved with Schweidler in purchasing supplies and assisting in the steroid manufacturing process, as well has handling online customer orders and shipping steroids to customers.

In late summer 2013, Schweidler and Peters relocated the operation to the Kansas City, Mo, area, and Lyne became involved in the conspiracy. Eventually Schweidler turned over more operational duties to Peters, who recruited Miller to move to Kansas City to assist in the operation. In the fall of 2014, Peters and Miller took over operational responsibilities for PowerTrip and relocated the operation back to North Carolina in an effort to avoid law enforcement detection of the operation.

During the conspiracy Schweidler personally sent in excess of $176,000 in drug proceeds