Ecstasy gang who ran factory from Scarborough seafront flat jailed

Four gang members who used a seafront holiday apartment as a makeshift ecstasy factory have been jailed.

Police seized 70,000 tablets when they raided the flat on Sandside in Scarborough.

A cement mixer, pill press, molds, powders to create different coloured pills, scales and storage and packaging facilties were also found.

The apartment block was owned by gang ringleader, 45-year-old Sabastian Kaminski.

It was used as a base to turn crystalised high-purity MDMA into tablets which were then sold in bulk across the country.

To increase their profits, the gang used adulterants to produce an inferior product that looked like ecstasy.

North Yorkshire Police said they used substitute ingredients which increased the health risks to users.

Kaminski and his accomplice, Marcin Glowacki, 33, also of Scarborough, made the pills and delivered them to their buyers, from North Yorkshire to London.

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

Police observed Nartowicz arriving in Scarborough and exchanging large holdalls with Glowacki.

On one occasion Nartowicz was stopped by officers on the M1 in Leicestershire as he travelled south.

They found two holdalls with containing 45,000 tablets and £13,600 in cash.

If sold on the streets, the seized drugs would have had a value of around £142,000.

The gang pleaded guilty to a total of 16 drug-related offences when they appeared at York Crown Court.

Kaminski was jailed for 8 years and 10 months. Glowacki was jailed for 6 years and two months. Nartowicz received a sentence of 3 years and one month. Kupiec was jailed for two years and seven months.

Det Con 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."

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