‘Breaking Bad’ carpet fitter used cement mixer to make fake drugs
A CARPET fitter who set up a Breaking Bad- style chemical laboratory using a cement mixer to make bootleg medicines has been jailed.
Daniel Hackland, 33, earned up to £500,000 by illegally producing steroids, Viagra and anti-cancer pills using banned or prescription-only drugs bought online.
The father- of-two had a luxurious lifestyle, spending £50,000 on sports cars, while his wife, Jenna, splashed out £35,000 in a year shopping and wore a Rolex.
But his racket was uncovered when a bodybuilder collapsed after taking a product bought from his D-Hacks website.
The drug, called DNP, had previously been sold by an unrelated website as a slimming aid, causing the death of a 23-year-old student in Leeds in 2012. Hackland was arrested after officers from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency began an investigation.
Photographs released yesterday show the equipment uncovered by a police raid on Hackland’s rented office on a Manchester trading estate in 2015, with piles of cash and a chemical lab.
In an echo of the gritty US crime drama Breaking Bad, the lab was equipped with a cement mixer, an electric pill press, steriliser units and trays of empty vials.
Hackland, who claimed to earn £5,000 a year fitting carpets, had bought equipment from China, enlisting his wife Jenna, 29, and brother Matthew, 31, in the scam.
Among the illicit products he sold were steroids for body builders, Viagra and Cialis for impotence, drugs for acne, and the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen, which can counter the side-effects of steroid abuse. Between his office and his home in Manchester, police found 900 syringes,173,000 tablets, 3,000 bottles of injectable liquids worth £172,000 and £50,000-plus in cash.
More than 500,000 tablets worth £136,000 were at Matthew Hackland’s home.
Hackland admitted producing a controlled drug and was jailed for four and a half years at Manchester Crown Court.
He and his brother, who was jailed for three years, admitted money laundering and intending to supply prescription-only medication and unauthorised medicinal products. Jenna Hackland, a bank worker, was given a suspended 18-month sentence and told to do 100 hours’ unpaid work after admitting money laundering.
‘Piles of cash and a chemical lab’