A businessman from Swindon who personalised illegal drugs which have killed hundreds has been jailed.

Sebastiano Sorrenti, 35, of Swindon was known to criminal associates as “Machine Guy” and used his industrial pill press to personalise drugs with Snapchat and WhatsApp logos before supplying them to dealers.

The press was used 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 criminal activity was first discovered after an investigation was launched by the National Crime Agency in 2021 following the conviction of Kyle Byrne, of Paisley, for drug offences.

Byrne who was part of an organised crime group and had Sorrenti's phone number saved under the contact "Machine Guy" in his phone.

At the time, the Swindon pill personaliser ran a company that supplied equipment to legitimate pharmaceutical businesses.

The personalised pills had social media logos imprinted onto themThe personalised pills had social media logos imprinted onto them (Image: National Crime Agency) Sorrenti is from Swindon, but had been supplying drugs to Scottish dealersSorrenti is from Swindon, but had been supplying drugs to Scottish dealers (Image: National Crime Agency) When arrested, officers discovered pill press stamps, Scottish banknotes and tablets containing Etizolam and MDMA in his house.

NCA drugs experts believe a single haul of MDMA in one picture is worth more than £600,000. 

As well as supplying pills, the Swindon man also sent Byrne a recipe to make 140,000 tablets.

“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," said NCA Lead Investigator Rory Duffin.

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

On Friday, November 1, Sorrenti pleaded guilty to all charges against him and was sentenced immediately afterwards to 13 years in jail.

This comes after the Swindon man denied supplying drugs to criminals in Scotland and claimed his phone number had been spoofed.

The pill press that was found in Sorrenti's homeThe pill press that was found in Sorrenti's home (Image: National Crime Agency) However, a forensic examination of the phone by NCA officers found no evidence of spoofing and of the 4,000 messages were examined by investigators, many showed Sorrenti discussed evading police detection.

Cell site data retrieved by the investigation team also proved Sorrenti had made numerous trips to Scotland on dates correlating with messages arranging collection and delivery of illicit goods.

One photo sent from Byrne to Sorrenti showed a photo of a quad bike which was given to the Swindon man in part payment for his drugs.

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