On January 28, 2022, the Debrecen District Court pronounced a verdict on the case of four men who abused illicit performance enhancers and sold and used illegal potency enhancers.
During the preparatory hearing, the prosecutor presented the indictment. The prosecutor’s office issued a so-called moderate motion for punishment against the accused in the case of a confession and a waiver of the right to a trial. The defendants admitted to committing the crimes in accordance with the indictment and waived their right to a trial, which was accepted by the court.
The first-instance court charged the first-degree defendant with the crime of commercially committed illicit performance enhancement and the counterfeiting of drugs, the second-degree defendant with the crime of counterfeiting drugs, and the third- and fourth-degree defendants with the crime of drug counterfeiting.
Therefore, in accordance with the prosecutor’s motion, the district court sentenced the first-degree defendant to 1 year 9 months in prison and banned him from practicing public affairs for 3 years. The second-degree defendant was sentenced by the court to 8 months’ imprisonment, but the execution of the sentence was suspended for 2 years. The court imposed a fine of HUF 600,000 on the third-degree defendant and HUF 420,000 on the fourth-degree defendant.
According to the verdict, the first defendant had participated in several bodybuilding competitions for decades even before the crimes, and he had saved part of his livelihood by training bodybuilding athletes, among other things, as personal trainers. As a result, he gained national fame in bodybuilding circles and regularly visited gyms. Also due to his reputation there, he has been in regular contact with bodybuilding athletes who used illicit performance enhancers containing various androgenic anabolic steroids and growth hormones to increase their muscle mass in preparation for competitions. The first defendant, in cooperation with persons not involved in the present case, established a commercial network from several customers and sources, in which it sold commercially and criminally allotted anabolic steroids and illicit performance enhancers containing growth hormone and health care products not authorized in Hungary.
The series of crimes ended with the initiation of criminal proceedings against the first-degree defendant at the Hajdú-Bihar County Police Headquarters, during which on 12 September 2017 the police arrested the first-degree defendant together with several of his associates. The man was arrested by the investigating judge of the Debrecen District Court on 14 September 2017, and the coercive measure was maintained until 12 March 2018. Upon his arrest, investigators seized large quantities of illicit performance enhancers and the devices needed to use them, as well as illegal potentiators, from the first-rate defendant. Due to the seizure of drugs and the ordering of his arrest, the conspiracy disintegrated and the activity was interrupted. The first-time defendant began working as a personal trainer again shortly after his release in March 2018, re-engaging with the bodybuilding athletes he practiced. In order to earn extra income from mid-2018, the man began to organize the distribution of illegal drugs again, but now he has been more cautious in his dealings with customers.
Second-, third-, and fourth-degree defendants in the case purchased from the first-degree defendant illicit drugs. In the area of Debrecen, for example, the second-degree defendant repeatedly obtained potency-enhancing drugs from the first-degree defendant, which he later resold, and was even able to obtain such illegal medicine from other, unknown sources, which he then sold to others.
The first-degree defendant regularly provided the fourth-degree defendant with varying amounts of prohibited performance enhancers and illegal potency enhancers. The two men agreed to store the illegal drugs in the fourth-degree defendant’s residence, otherwise storing them inside their TVs while hiding them from their children. The accumulated illicit drugs were found by investigators during a search conducted on April 1, 2019, in the home of the accused in Berettyóújfalu.
The Debrecen District Court ruled that it was final and was acknowledged by both the prosecutor’s office and the defendants and their lawyers.
debrecenitorvenyszek.birosag.hu
Picture: illustration.
