'Machine Guy' jailed for supplying drug equipment

Sebastiano Sorrenti, 35, gave dealers a "professional customer service"

A businessman who was known to drug dealers as "Machine Guy" for supplying them with industrial pill presses has been jailed for 13 years.

Sebastiano Sorrenti, 35, from Brean Road, Swindon, gave dealers a "professional customer service", including a method for making 140,000 tablets of the class C drug Etizolam.

Investigations into a drug dealer in Scotland led the National Crime Agency (NCA) to Sorrenti, who also had messages discussing avoiding police detection.

He was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court after pleading guilty to all charges against him.

Pictures found when investigation Sorrenti's messages included images of large amounts of drugs

NCA lead investigator Rory Duffin said Sorrenti played a "critical role for a number of organised criminals".

“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" he explained.

Investigators found matching pill stamp designs

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

Sorrenti also ran a company that supplied equipment to legitimate pharmaceutical businesses but his number was found on a dealer's phone in Scotland as "Machine Guy".

In 2022, NCA officers and Wiltshire Police arrested him at his home, discovering pill press stamps which matched the logos of dealers, Scottish banknotes and tablets with Etizolam and MDMA.

Pictures of MDMA were also in the messages

He had sent messages talking about delivery of equipment and advice on fixing a press.

Investigators went through more than 4,000 messages - guidance from Sorrenti on making the pills, 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 he had also visited Scotland on dates matching messages about collection and delivery of illicit goods.

Sorrenti tried to claim his phone number had been spoofed but examination by officers found no evidence of this.