These steroids, steroid-making chemicals and equipment were seized from Anthony Mammana by law enforcement authorities Nov. 9, 2020.Courtesy of the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Anthony Mammana liked “looking buff” and helping his friends bulk up, which is why he started making steroids out of his sister’s home, according to his lawyer.

But the 43-year-old Northampton man’s hobby quickly blew up into a significant distributorship, federal authorities say.

Federal authorities seized more than 10,000 doses of steroids from the home where he lived in November 2020.

On Tuesday, he was sentenced to four years and seven months in federal prison, according to online court records. He pleaded guilty in May to five crimes linked to making, selling and possessing steroids.

“Mammana’s unregulated brewing and widespread sale of anabolic steroids contributed to the growing problem of steroid abuse in this country,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Eileen Castilla Geiger wrote in her sentencing memorandum.

Authorities found 10 pounds of powder, more than 800 fluid-filled vials and 9,600 pills of either testosterone or the chemicals required to make steroids when they raided Mammana’s home.

Mammana previously served time in federal prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, Geiger wrote. She wrote that he had been out of prison for a year and was on federal probation when he started selling steroids.

Mammana knew it was wrong to sell steroids, according to the sentencing memorandum filed by his attorney, Ralf W. Greenwood Jr. of Allentown. But he purposefully refrained from selling other street drugs because he knew they were even more harmful.

He admits to using steroids but says he wasn’t addicted, according to Greenwood.

“He believed use of steroids was not as dangerous or as harmful as other street drugs,” Greenwood wrote, later adding, “He and his friends enjoyed getting pumped up and looking buff.”

Geiger wrote that Mammana sold steroids online and shipped them all over the country. Authorities intercepted packages he mailed from the Whitehall and Coplay post offices that were headed to buyers in Pennsylvania, New York and California, she wrote.

Geiger wrote that steroids are addictive and dangerous, but Greenwood said Mammana didn’t set out to harm anyone with his steroid business. Mammana just wanted to help out his friends, Greenwood wrote.

Mammana’s rough childhood, an abusive relationship and dead-end jobs contributed to his drug usage and destructive decisions, Greenwood wrote.

Each side agreed to the recommended sentence of four years and seven months in federal prison. Mammana was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith in Easton.

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Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com.

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