Two brothers in the United Kingdom are being sentenced to significant prison time for running in underground laboratory in the UK, possessing and distributing performance-enhancing drugs as well as other classified substances, and running and illicit drug trafficking ring.
Daniel and Matthew Hackland were found guilty of all charges posed against them, with the wife of Daniel – Jenna Hackland – also being found guilty of protecting the two brothers and interfering in an active drug investigation.
Daniel will be sentenced to 54 months in prison for his part in the underground drug laboratory while his brother Matthew gets a somewhat lighter sentence that just 36 months in prison. Daniel’s wife Jenna was given an 18 month suspended prison sentence, though she will have to deal with probation clauses that could have her back behind bars if she makes the wrong step over the next year and a half.
According to investigators and later prosecutors, Daniel and Matthew were responsible for running in underground laboratory known on the street as “D-Hacks Pharmaceuticals”.
Most well-known amongst their clientele for being an online source for fat loss supplements and fat burning chemical cocktails, most popular lead DNP, they also sold a whole host of other controlled substances and performance-enhancing drugs including anabolic steroids and a number of post cycle therapy (PCT) drugs as well.
A recorder judge representing the Manchester Crown Court was the individual that passed down these sentences. Investigators and prosecutors were able to conclusively prove that both of these brothers had been working together to establish a large-scale and quite sophisticated drug production and distribution center, and operation that was able to generate well over £500,000 for both of the co-conspirators.
On top of that, the recorder judge also made mention of bringing down these pretty stiff penalties because of the fact that a number of customers that purchased D-Hacks Pharmacy products found themselves in the hospital afterwards – including a customer from South Wales that was hospitalized after purchasing the DNP product we highlighted above.
The judge explicitly called out this particular incident as part of the stiff sentencing that he was enacting.
That individual, an individual that has remained anonymous behind sealed court documents, broke the dam when it came to the investigation into both of these brothers and the D-Hacks Pharmacy in general.
The young man was hospitalized in March 2013 after leveraging the DNP product sold by this organization. Shortly after that, the Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency was brought on board and began to investigate the D-Hacks Pharmacy after medical experts conclusively proved that the individual had been hospitalized after being poisoned by DNP.
It took absolutely no time whatsoever for investigators to uncover the full extent of the D-Hacks Pharmacy operation. In their report, investigators made mention of the fact that neither of these brothers took very many safety or security precautions, did not try to anonymize their operation, and very frequently received money for the legal and illicit drugs – as well as counterfeit substances – while using their full and legal name through the traditional banking system.
The Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency was also able to identify the people behind the D-Hacks Pharmacy websites after researching who purchased and owned the domain name. In 2015, after a significant amount of evidence had already been compiled, police executed search warrants on the homes of these individuals and seized a considerable amount of assets as well as a whole host of illegal and illicit substances.
375,000 tablets of anabolic steroids were seized at one home with 170,000 tablets seized at another, and close to 2000 vials of injectable anabolic steroids were discovered across both properties, too.
These brothers will not see freedom for at least three years because of their crimes.