Four Jailed After Police Dismantle Scarborough Seafront Ecstasy Lab

Tuesday, 16 July 2024 17:59

Four members of an organised crime group have been jailed for over 20 years after detectives dismantled a makeshift ecstasy lab housed inside a block of Scarborough seafront holiday lets.

The flat at 42-43 Sandside, forms part of a building owned by the group’s ringleader, 45-year-old Sabastian Kaminski from Scarborough. It was used as a base to turn crystalised high purity MDMA into tens of thousands of deceptive ecstasy tablets which were then sold on in bulk across the country.

The manufacturing operation used raw materials, a cement mixer, a pill press, fridge, different shaped molds, coloured powders to create different coloured pills, scales, storage and packaging facilties.

Alongside the production of ecstasy pills, the operation also produced methylmethcathinone, chloromethcathinone and caffeine pills which were intended to resemble ecstasy pills in shape, colour, weight and design.

To save money and increase profits, the group used various adulterants to produce an inferior product, albeit with a similar appearance to ecstasy.

Of approximately 70,000 pills seized by North Yorkshire Police, only 2,000 were found to have any trace of MDMA. Those that did contain it, contained miniscule amounts.

Within the makeshift laboratory were a number of basic drug testing kits used to ensure the product was sufficiently deceptive.

Not only was the substitute ingredient inferior it also brought with it increased risks of psychological, cardiovascular and other negative side effects which the user may not have anticipated.

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’.

Kaminski was the main organiser of the provision of raw materials, and onward sale of the drugs, but the investigation showed that Glowacki was also involved in that aspect of the operation.

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.

Two other men involved in the operation, Daniel Nartowicz, 34 from Haringey, London and Maciej Kupiec, 31, from Hull, were used as couriers to transport drugs between Luton, London and Scarborough.

Police observed Nartowicz arriving in Scarborough and exchanging large holdalls with Glowacki. Following one such occasion, Nartowicz was stopped by police officers on the M1 in Leicestershire as he travelled south.

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.

Kupiec’s involvement was in the delivery of MDMA to Scarborough from contacts in the south of England. The investigation evidenced Kupiec handing 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.

Faced with the overwhelming evidence gathered by the police investigation, 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.”

All four were sentenced at York Crown Court on Friday 5 July 2024.