A scientist who operated a clandestine drug laboratory within his pharmaceutical company pleaded guilty Thursday to setting in motion a scheme worthy of a television series… after being caught calling the police himself to report a flight.
“The defendant operated a ‘Breaking Bad’ style pharmaceutical laboratory and attempted to hide it under the guise of a legitimate business. He then inadvertently turned himself in when he reported a burglary had occurred at that same business,” Suffolk County Prosecutor Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement Friday.
Matthew Leshinsky, 23, pleaded guilty Thursday to more than a dozen charges of possessing and illegally manufacturing methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, which he allegedly concocted at his legitimate lab in Ronkonkoma, Wash. of New York, according to the “New York Post”.
Except that on June 7, the scientist made the task easier for investigators by calling them himself to come and visit the scene in the early morning, for a burglary in progress.
It was then that the agents allegedly noted signs indicating that the laboratory was involved in the production of methamphetamine and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a hallucinogenic substance, we read in the press release.
A search warrant allegedly allowed officers to get their hands on more than a hundred pieces of laboratory equipment, chemical reagents and solvents used in manufacturing, in addition to US$40,000 in cash.
They also allegedly found MDMA, a type of ecstasy, more than three ounces of methamphetamine, more than 625,000 milligrams of pure ketamine and more than 20 drums of almost 210 liters each containing GBL, a substance chemically similar to GHB , commonly known as a “date rape drug,” the prosecutor’s office continued.
“I would like to thank the officers of the Suffolk County Police Department who carefully identified evidence of a clandestine drug laboratory when they first responded to the scene,” the prosecutor continued.
For his part, the defendant’s lawyer, David Besso, allegedly tried to present his client as a “brilliant” scientist who studied drug addiction “for the public good,” even though he was working without the proper certification during his arrest, reported the “NY Post”.
According to him, he filed an application for the license with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
“Unfortunately, he did it wrong,” the lawyer reportedly told Newsday.
The suspect is expected to receive his sentence on March 20.
