Two more people — including a former Polish Love Island contestant — have admitted roles in a massive £53 million county lines supply plot which was blown apart after a drug seizure in the Lake District.
Earlier this year, nine men were handed jail sentences totalling more than 106 years for their involvement in a conspiracy which is said to be one of the UK’s biggest ever. A 10th man is due to be punished later this year.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how vast quantities of cocaine were imported into the UK, warehoused and then distributed to towns and cities nationwide by organised crime group members seeking to rake in vast profits.
Police rounded up suspects up after 1kg of cocaine was seized last February in Bowness-on-Windermere, where stashes had been stored in a lock-up by a Cumbrian regional retailer.
Police made arrests and seized phones which allowed them to amass damning evidence as part of an investigation codenamed Operation Matrix.
This revealed the true scale of a plot said to be one of the UK’s largest ever, and described by prosecutor Tim Evans as truly massive. “This is Amazon-style drug-dealing with that level of organisation and commerciality about it,” he said during an initial sentencing hearing in March.
As 10 key players were brought to court, officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit rounded up three more suspects after poring through data which included WhatsApp messages.
Two of them — Magdalena Sadlo, 29, and 40-year-old Mark Knowles — appeared at the crown court today. Both admitted conspiring to supply the class A drug between March, 2022, and May last year.
Sadlo is said to be have been a criminal courier, and Knowles a warehouseman.
The court heard Sadlo — who starred in the Polish version of Love Island in her homeland during 2021 — had been detained by police after flying into Heathrow airport from Dubai.
Sadlo, previously of Ingleton, Bracknell, Berkshire, will be sentenced along with Knowles at the crown court later this year. In the meantime Sadlo remains remanded in custody while Knowles — a carer for both his wife and daughter has been granted bail to put his affairs in order.
Passing sentence on the nine men earlier this year, Judge Nicholas Barker — who will punish Sadlo, Knowles, of Prestwich Street, Atherton, and the other man, leading light Simon Buller, of Freshfield Avenue, Atherton — told them the plot had involved serious drug-related activity.
