An ecstasy lab has been dismantled in North Yorkshire.
Four members of an organised crime group were jailed for more than 20 years at York Crown Court on Friday, July 5.
Detectives from North Yorkshire Police managed to dismantle the makeshift lab, which was found inside a block of seafront holiday lets in Scarborough.
Sabastian Kaminski, 45, of Scarborough, has been described as the group's ringleader. He owned part of the building that housed the flats at 42-43 Sandside.
He and his group used the flat as a base to turn crystalised MDMA into tens of thousands of tablets, that the police said were sold across the country.
Sabastian Adam Kaminski, 45, of Ingle Close, Scarborough (Image: North Yorkshire Police)
"The manufacturing operation used raw materials, a cement mixer, a pill press, fridge, different shaped moulds, coloured powders to create different coloured pills, scales, storage and packaging facilities," a spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said.
Officers added that around 70,000 pills were seized during an operation - with 2,000 of those found to have a trace of MDMA.
Alongside the production of ecstasy pills, the crime group's operation also made methylmethcathinone, chloromethcathinone and caffeine pills - which were designed to resemble ecstasy pills, the police said.
The makeshift laboratory was also said to have a number of basic drug testing kits used to ensure the products were sufficiently deceptive.
Marcin Glowacki, 33, of Eastborough, Scarborough (Image: North Yorkshire Police)
Kaminski’s accomplice, Marcin Glowacki, 33, also of Scarborough, collected the raw materials and delivered them to Kaminski’s lab. He then delivered the finished product to their customers.
The pair had a wide customer base that stretched from North Yorkshire to London. These contacts not only bought the finished product but were also the source for the raw materials.
One of their main contacts was an individual or group in Luton, the court heard.
Two other men involved in the operation; Daniel Nartowicz, 34, from Haringey in London, and Maciej Kupiec, 31, from Hull, were found to have been used as couriers to transport drugs between Luton, London and Scarborough.
Police observed Nartowicz arriving in Scarborough and exchanging large holdall bags with Glowacki. On one such occasion, Nartowicz was stopped by police officers on the M1 in Leicestershire as he travelled south.
Daniel Nartowicz (left) and Maciej Kupiec (right) (Image: North Yorkshire Police)
Following a search of his car, officers recovered two holdalls with 32 packages containing 45,000 tablets consisting of MDMA, methylmethcathinone, chloromethcathinone and caffeine, and £13,600 in cash.
If sold on the streets, the seized drugs would have had a value of around £142,000, police said.
Kupiec’s involvement was in the delivery of MDMA to Scarborough from contacts in the south of England.
The investigation found that Kupiec had handed over a package to Glowacki on St Nicholas Cliff, along with phone data showing Kupiec to be in contact with the same Luton group as Kaminski and travelling to Scarborough on three separate occasions.
The group pleaded guilty to a total of 16 drug-related offences between them.
Detective Constable Laurence Longworth, of North Yorkshire Police’s Organised Crime Unit, said: "This group put people’s lives at risk by contaminating drugs with substances which increase the risk of harm.
"They did this for their own financial benefit and without the knowledge of those who would go on to use them.
"Thankfully the enterprise has now been dismantled and those responsible have been sentenced appropriately."
- Sabastian Adam Kaminski, 45, of Ingle Close, Scarborough, was jailed for eight years and 10 months; Marcin Glowacki, 33, of Eastborough, Scarborough, was jailed for six years and two months; Daniel Nartowicz, 34, of Seven Sisters Road, Haringey, London, was jailed for three years and one month, and Maciej Kupiec, 31, of Dundee Street, Hull, was jailed for two years and seven months.
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