'Machine guy' who supplied drug dealers with industrial pill pressers jailed for 13 years

Sebastiano Sorrenti, 35, was known to drug dealers as "Machine Guy" Credit: National Crime Agency

A businessman who was known to drug dealers as "machine guy" for supplying industrial pill presses has been jailed for 13 years.

Sebastiano Sorrenti, 35, of Swindon, gave drug suppliers a "professional customer service," including providing a recipe for how to make 140,000 Etizolam pills.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) were led to Sorrenti after carrying out investigations into a drug dealer in Scotland, who was convicted in 2021.

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to all charges against him.

NCA Lead Investigator Rory Duffin said: "The NCA investigation found Sorrenti was providing criminals with professional-standard customer service, supplying equipment, ingredients and instructions to create hundreds of thousands of potentially fatal drugs, and troubleshooting problems that arose.

"Working with Police Scotland, we’ve ensured that Sorrenti, who played a critical role for a number of organised criminals, is now in jail".

Investigators found pills matching the stamp designs Credit: National Crime Agency

In 2020, Police Scotland found pill presses being used by an organised crime group to produce Etizolam, a Class C drug which in the same year was a factor in more than 800 drug-related deaths in Scotland.

The NCA said it was evident from WhatsApp messages that the equipment had been provided by a contact saved under the name "Machine Guy".

NCA officers were able to attribute the number for "Machine Guy" to Sorrenti, who ran a company that supplied equipment to legitimate pharmaceutical businesses.

In 2022, NCA officers, assisted by Wiltshire Police, arrested Sorrenti at his home. They recovered pill press stamps, Scottish banknotes and tablets containing Etizolam and MDMA.

The stamps helped prove Sorrenti provided the drug gang with equipment because their designs – imitations of the WhatsApp and Snapchat logos – matched branding on pills recovered by Police Scotland.

Sorrenti had also sent messages discussing the delivery of equipment and advice on fixing a malfunctioning press.

Investigators went through more than 4000 messages, in which Sorrenti discussed evading police detection and gave the dealers guidance on making the pills.

He had also been sent pictures of the criminal group's drugs (one showed MDMA thought to be worth more than £600,000) and a photo of a quad bike to be part payment for drugs.

Data proved that Sorrenti had also visited Scotland on dates correlating with messages arranging collection and delivery of illicit goods.

At first, Sorrenti denied supplying drugs to criminals in Scotland, claiming his phone number had been spoofed. However, a forensic examination of the phone by NCA officers found no evidence of spoofing.

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to all charges against him.