Graigue man jailed for illegally manufacturing anabolic steroids
Carlow courthouse Pic: Michael O'Rourke.
A MAN who pleaded guilty to having an illegal laboratory in his home, where he manufactured and marketed unauthorised anabolic steroids, was given a prison sentence when he appeared before Carlow Circuit Court last week.
Wesley Rea, 48 Springhill Court, Graiguecullen was brought to court by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) after they searched his home on 5 July 2022 and discovered an illegal laboratory and around €39,000 worth of products, including anabolic steroids.
Alan Smullen from the HPRA told Judge Eugene O’Kelly that it was the “most serious operation” of illegally manufacturing, supplying and marketing of unauthorised products he had seen in his 17 years as an officer with the authority. Judge O’Kelly heard that no quality controls were used, nor any hygiene control used in the operation and that he found a bottle beside Mr Rea’s bed, into which he had urinated.
Mr Rea pleaded guilty in February to two counts of illegally manufacturing medicinal products, two counts of keeping medicinal products for supply and two counts of placing medicinal products onto the market.
Mr Smullen told the court that when the HPRA and the gardaí entered 46-year-old Mr Rea’s house on 5 July 2022 they found equipment and products used in the manufacture of anabolic steroids, including bottles, vials and machinery to fill, label and seal the bottles, as well as materials used for making the steroids. They found over 470 vials of clear liquid in the hot press, 66 other vials elsewhere, 2,000 glass beakers and 66 capsules, the court heard.
In total 1,146 filled vials were found and the estimated value of the anabolic steroids, including several types containing testosterone, was approximately €39,000, said Mr Smullen.
The HPRA had approached a sports company earlier in 2022 and confirmed that it had supplied Mr Rea with massage oils that are commonly used in making steroids.
Mr Smullen continued that Mr Rea had set up an online company called Hexagon Pharmaceuticals, where the illegal products were marketed and sold, and that the customers would have no idea that the products were illegal.
Mr Smullen continued that Mr Rea had previously been prosecuted by the HPRA for selling 400 different types of unregulated medicinal products when he had a legitimate retail business and that he had been given the benefit of the ***Probation Act***.
When Judge O’Kelly asked Mr Smullen if he thought Mr Rea’s manufacturing operation was “serious”, he replied: “It’s probably the most serious operation I’ve seen in 17 years. It’s a lab in a private dwelling producing these products and they were marketed though the Hexagon website. People would believe that it was a legitimate (business.)” When counsel for Mr Rea told the court that he learnt how to make the steroids from the internet, Judge O’Kelly said that “the customers were exposed to a greater level of danger than if the person who was manufacturing the products knew what he was doing”.
The court heard that Mr Rea began the laboratory and manufacturing plant during the Covid years, after he had fallen behind in his rent and that he had no other way of making money. Judge O’Kelly also heard that he had sold “very little” of the anabolic steroids and had made very little money because it was just the beginning of the operation.
Judge O’Kelly heard that the defendant had “serious health issues”, including heart failure and being morbidly obese and that he wanted to turn his life around by getting healthy and starting another business.
When he was sentencing Mr Rea, Judge O’Kelly said he did not believe that he was only learning how to manufacture the steroids and that he knew what he was doing. He added that the almost €40,000 worth of products had “the potential of doing huge damage to unsuspecting customers”. He also noted that in the probation officer’s report, it found that Mr Rea had no realisation of the impact the medicine would have on the people who took it, and that he still believed he had a “solid career” in selling sports nutrition.
Judge O’Kelly said that Mr Rea would find a stable environment and the support he needed to turn his life around in prison.
He then sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment, suspending the final 18 months for a period of 18 months. He also ordered him to attend the Probation Service on his release from prison and to fully comply with its directions.
