Oftentimes criminals will change their ways as soon as they see the weight of the justice system pressing down on them, never wanting to have to worry about spending any more time in the legal system – let alone behind bars.
But some criminals our little bit more attached to the lifestyle and have a difficult time letting go of their bad habits, as is the case with Agris Bremsmits (at least according to investigators and undercover RTE agents).
Bremsmits is absolutely no stranger to the Irish legal system. In 2015, Bremsmits decided that he was going to get into the anabolic steroid distribution game and went about it with a very technologically focused kind of approach to marketing. He jumped on Facebook, started a page called “Steroids Ireland”, and took advantage of social media and online advertising tools to blatantly sell illegal anabolic steroids to teenagers.
It didn’t take very long for him to get busted. The concerned mother of an 18-year-old client decided to turn him into the authorities and the Irish Health Product Regulatory Authority worked with local police agents to set up an undercover investigation.
It took absolutely zero time whatsoever for them to find a mountain of evidence against Bremsmits.
Bremsmits openly admitted to running this steroid distribution operation and also pled guilty to nine individual counts of selling medicinal products that require a prescription. As part of his guilty plea, however, he wasn’t given any jail time as a sentence – even though he could have been sent behind bars for up to 12 months according to the law.
Instead, Bremsmits was asked only to pay a €5000 fine on top of €3500 fees in court costs. On top of that, Bremsmits was given an entire 12 months to pay both of these penalties off (the same amount of time he probably should have been parked in jail).
Choosing not to pay a single bit of that money over the next 12 months Bremsmits was hauled in front of the legal system once again. He had absolutely no excuse for not paying the fine, told the judge that he had been gainfully employed and could pay the fine, and – even though he faced even more jail time because of this violation – was able to skirt getting sent to prison once again.
Inexplicably, Bremsmits was given another opportunity to pay back his fine. A three month extension was granted (without any interest or extra penalties), and to the surprise of absolutely no one Bremsmits didn’t pay back the money again.
Instead, Bremsmits decided to shake things up a little bit and start up his old steroid distribution service – this time staying away from the internet. He decided to set up shop as a personal trainer at a local gym and offer anabolic steroids to his clients, one of which just happened to be an investigative journalist that was digging into the underground steroid trafficking business that had grown up in Ireland over the past decade.
According to RTE Investigators Bremsmits approached the undercover journalist and offered to sell him steroids inside of just 20 minutes of meeting at the fitness center where he worked. The journalist recognized the opportunity and purchased the steroids, keeping careful track of every detail and reporting the situation to the local police as well.
Four other times Bremsmits sold steroids to the investigative journalist and when the documentary was finally released a local police officers arrested Bremsmits once again and will bring him in front of the same judge that has given him a “get out of jail free card” twice already.
The odds are pretty good that Bremsmits is going to be staring down a three strikes and you’re out situation this time around.