Bodybuilder Mark Matthews and Torryn Wilhelm jailed for Alpha Beast steroid racket

The juice has been squeezed out of a Victorian bodybuilder who masterminded Australia-wide dark web steroid ring ‘Alpha Beast’.

Mark Matthews ran the Alpha Beast steroid racket. Facebook.

A bodybuilder dad who masterminded a multimillion-dollar dark web steroid racket has been jailed.

Mark Matthews, 36, was sentenced in the County Court on Monday to a minimum three years jail after pleading guilty to trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs.

Matthews, with his lackey Torryn Wilhelm, ran Alpha Beast’ out of a Hoppers Crossing property between April 2018 and January 2019.

The court was told Matthews and Wilhelm moved various illicit bodybuilding drugs including synthetic testosterone and Oxandrolone — a powerful anabolic steroid.

The roid kingpins also moved huge quantities of various other steroids and Xanax and Valium, which the court heard was used by bodybuilders to relieve training soreness.

The pair sold stimulant Modafinil which is abused to maximise focus and effort in exercise and competition, the court heard.

Customers purchased Matthews’ products — marketed as Helix Pharma — via his encrypted Alpha Beast site.

Alpha Beast was routed through various offshore servers including a clandestine host server based in Iceland.

Alpha Beast membership could only be obtained via subscription through a virtual private network.

Matthews and Wilhelm only accepted cardless cash and cryptocurrency including Bitcoin as payment for drugs.

Torryn Wilhelm worked and lived in Wodonga.

The pair also used Australia Post road freight to mail products to customers rather than airmail to avoid closer scrutiny from authorities.

Alpha Beast, at its height, was one of the premium online supplier of illicit steroids in Australia, the court was told.

Posts on bodybuilder forum BSF, which were read to the court, claimed BSF had been “one of the most successful online steroid vendors on the darknet over the last twelve months making approximately 4500 sales”.

Federal authorities and Victoria Police launched a sting operation on Alpha Beast after $169,315 worth of steroids was intercepted via Australia Post.

Investigators raided the Fowler St property and seized 83kg of steroids and more than 7000 Valium and Xanax tablets in January 2019.

The prosecution estimated the drugs seized had a commercial value of more than $1 million.

Police also seized beakers, heaters, mixer, measured liquid pumps, two large pill presses that contained Helix and Helix logo imprinting stamps and $35,320.

It was alleged the house doubled as an “under ground laboratory”.

Authorities also discovered an encrypted digital wallet — protected with a 24-word passcode — which contained 81 Bitcoin.

Matthews sold steroids to other bodybuilders.

However, while Matthews and Wilhelm were in custody, most of the Bitcoin — worth more than $4 million — was transferred to an “unidentified account”.

Fresh BSF alerts posted after the bust stated police had closed Alpha Beast and THRIVE Anabolics would now “cover orders from Helix”.

Matthews declined to answer police questions but Wilhelm told investigators he became involved with Alpha Beast back in January 2018.

The court heard, Wilhelm, 30, who pleaded guilty to the same charges, “worked” for Matthews.

Wilhelm claimed he was paid $700 a week to move steroids, fill vials and assist with packaging and mailing parcels.

Judge Chris Ryan said at the plea hearing that selling illegal steroids was “equally evil to meth”.

“This is real sophisticated drug use … to turn you into an Adonis,” Judge Ryan said.

“It’s a very sophisticated market being catered for and a very lucrative market being catered for.

“Are we going to get roid rage? Yes we are … (the customer) is capable of operating in this sophisticated underworld.”

Judge Ryan also pointed out one of the drugs pushed by Matthews and Wilhelm was “so you don’t end up with two testicles the size of frozen peas”.

Matthews, a dad, from Mallacoota, has worked in irrigation since he was bailed.

Wilhelm, from Wodonga, who received a reference from his Wilson Transformer Company boss, was jailed for a maximum three years’ jail with a minimum of 18 months.

Matthews, who also pleaded guilty to nine other trafficking charges, was jailed for a maximum five years jail.

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