“D-Hacks Laboratories” was once one of the United Kingdom’s most popular underground laboratories manufacturing anabolic steroids and bodybuilding drugs. Unfortunately, its glory days came to a quick end in 2015.
D-Hacks Labs had it all. It sold anabolic steroids such as Anavar and Dianabol but they were best known for their ancillary drugs. The ancillary drug list included post cycle therapy drugs like Clomid and Nolvadex, erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra and Cialis and fat loss drugs like clenbuterol and DNP. Its best-selling drug was likely D-Hacks DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol).
D-Hacks Labs products were sold directly through its own website at d-hackslaboratories.co.uk. The products were also sold through UK domestic steroid resellers such as “Steroids R Us” at steroids-r-us.net and “Lab Rats” at labrats.co. These steroid sources have all been busted and their websites are now defunct.
The beginning of the end for D-Hacks Labs occurred when a 23-year old medical student named Sarah Houston died after ingesting too much DNP on September 23, 2012.
Houston suffered from anorexia and bulimia and had been under the care of a psychiatrist for the preceding three years. The psychiatrist prescribed the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) known as Prozac (fluxoetine). But he had no idea Houston was secretly using DNP to lose weight.
DNP became public enemy number one in the United Kingdom after after coroner David Hinchliff blamed DNP “entirely” for Houston’s death at an inquest completed in April 2013.
Houston did not purchase DNP from D-Hacks Labs. But it didn’t matter. D-Hacks Labs was one of the most popular black market sources for DNP in the United Kingdom at the time.
To make matters worse, a Welsh bodybuilder, who was an actual customer that purchased DNP from D-Hacks Labs, found himself hospitalized in March 2013. This combination of DNP-related adverse events prompted several investigations.
An investigative journalism investigation by The Sunday Times in May 2013 quickly uncovered the identity of one of the owners behind D-Hacks Labs. When customers paid for DNP and steroids, they were asked to send payment via MoneyGram to “Daniel Hackland”.
Daniel Hackland apparently made no effort to hide his involvement. He probably even thought it was clever to base the name of the illegal UGL on his on name – Daniel Hackland aka D-Hacks.
It was an investigation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) that resulted in the criminal prosecution of Daniel Hackland and his brother Matthew Hackland. The MHRA investigation concluded that D-Hacks Labs was a large-scale and sophisticated steroid manufacturing and distribution operation that generated profits in excess of £500,000.
MHRA quickly zeroed in on a commercial rental unit at the Kingsley Trading Centre in Northenden. The commercial unit housed the clandestine underground lab where Daniel Hackland produced and manufactured various anabolic steroids and ancillary drugs for D-Hacks. Police seized laboratory equipment consistent with the operation of a clandestine UGL along with hundreds of thousands of pills and thousands of vials of injectable steroids.
Daniel Hackland and Matthew Hackland pleaded guilty to possessing prescription-only medication with intent to supply; possessing unauthorized medicinal products with intent to supply; possessing class C drugs with intent to supply and money laundering. Daniel Hackland also pleaded guilty to producing a controlled drug.
In September 2018, Daniel Hackland was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison. Matthew Hackland was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Daniel Hackland, owner of D-Hacks Laboratories