Swindon businessman who gave drug suppliers “professional customer service” is jailed
Sebastiano Sorrenti has been jailed for 13 years.
A businessman who used his specialist knowledge to help criminals produce thousands of dangerous illegal drugs has been jailed for 13 years, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency.
35-year-old Sebastiano Sorrenti, from Swindon, was known to criminal associates as “Machine Guy” because he gave them industrial pill presses.
He also sold associates large batches of Class A and C drugs.
It began in 2021 following the conviction of 33-year-old Kyle Byrne, of Paisley, for drug offences.
In 2020, Police Scotland recovered pill presses which Byrne’s organised crime group used to produce Etizolam, a Class C drug which in the same year was a factor in more than 800 drug-related deaths in the country.
It was evident from WhatsApp messages on Byrne’s phone 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 June 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 Byrne’s group with equipment because their designs matched branding on the pills recovered.
Investigating officers found the 35-year-old also sent a convicted criminal a recipe to make 140,000 tablets
Furthermore, the investigation team managed to prove he had made numerous trips to Scotland on dates correlating with messages arranging collection and delivery of illicit goods.
Sorrenti pleaded guilty to all the charges against him and was sentenced on Friday (1st November).
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.”