PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A businessman who sold steroids and human growth hormone to bodybuilders from around the country was sentenced to two years in federal prison Friday by a judge who called him the ringleader of a far-reaching operation.
Daniel McGlone, who was charged in Rhode Island two years ago as part of a bigger multistate probe into the illegal sale of steroids, apologized to his customers and to his family.
"I know that I let people down, your honor, and I know that it will not happen again," he told U.S. District Judge William Smith.
McGlone has admitted to recruiting doctors to write fake prescriptions for hundreds of customers between April 2004 and August 2006. He attracted clients by advertising his business, which he ran out of his apartment in North Brunswick, N.J., in magazines geared toward bodybuilders.
When customers contacted McGlone, he advised them on which drugs they should take, then forwarded the bogus prescriptions to large pharmacies to be filled.
The distribution of human growth hormone is prohibited under federal law, except for specified medical uses. It is not approved for bodybuilding or weight-loss treatments.
"Here we have a drug dealer who made a million dollars dealing drugs to people who have the money to spend," Smith said.
Though McGlone could have received nearly five years in prison under sentencing guidelines, prosecutors recommended a far more lenient punishment based on his cooperation in what they said was an ongoing investigation. They did not elaborate.
McGlone was ordered to report to prison Feb. 9.
McGlone was charged in February 2007 in Rhode Island along with two doctors from New York, Ana Maria Santi and Victor Mariani. Santi was sentenced to two years in prison and Mariani was given 12 months' home confinement for writing the prescriptions.
Signature Pharmacy, a Florida company whose client lists reportedly include many professional athletes, filled many of the prescriptions written by Santi and Mariani, prosecutors said.
Signature was raided two years ago, but a New York judge last September threw out an indictment against five operators of the pharmacy, saying county prosecutors had presented the case to a grand jury in a confusing and disjointed way.
