American Cellular Labs pleads guilty and is fined $500,000.

VMG Global, a sports nutrition company in California, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to selling products under the guise of dietary supplements that had been illegally spiked with steroids, according to court documents.

From 2005 through the middle of 2009, according to the documents, VMG Global, which also does business as American Cellular Labs, knowingly deceived consumers and the government by marketing two illegal drug products that each contained a synthetic anabolic steroid under the guise of dietary supplements.

During this time period, the illegal products, called Tren Xtreme and Mass Xtreme, generated revenue of about $5.6 million, the documents said. Mass Xtreme, for example, contained Madol, a designer steroid first identified six years ago during the investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, the documents said.

VMG Global pleaded guilty to one charge of introducing unapproved drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday in United States District Court in San Jose, Calif.

As part of the plea agreement, the company agreed to pay penalties of up to . It also agreed to destroy its remaining inventory of the two products.

Rick Collins, a lawyer representing VMG Global, said the company had cooperated with the government to resolve the case in a fair and appropriate manner.

“The felony prosecution and the substantial fine imposed should serve as a warning to supplement companies selling misbranded products that do not fit the criteria for a dietary ingredient,” Mr. Collins wrote in an e-mail message in response to a query from a reporter.

Personally I think spiking a nutritional product primarily used by teenagers is far worse than selling real steroids to adults.