Children of father who ran an ecstasy lab in their house test positive to the drug – after police find more than 20kg of illegal powder at the squalid home
- A 39-year-old father-of-two was busted for having a secret drug lab in his home
- Police found more than 20kgs of powder used to make drugs on the bottom floor
- Man’s two young children, aged one and five at the time, lived on the top floor
- Police allege the youngsters tested positive to drugs after their father’s arrest
- Man pleaded guilty to making, supplying drugs. He will be sentenced in March
Two young children who lived above their father’s drug lab had been so exposed to the substances being cooked beneath them that they tested positive to ecstasy.
The 39-year-old father-of-two was arrested when police raided the home he rented in Picnic Point in 2017 and found more than 20 kilograms of powders used to make drugs, a pill press, a manufacturing manual and $250,000, The Daily Telegraph reported.
His product was created inside a filthy clandestine laboratory on the bottom floor of the house, where mysterious dark liquids sat in dirty cups and buckets, and empty boxes and plastic packets were strewn around.
A man who set up a drug lab (pictured) on the bottom floor of his rented home in Sydney’s south-west has pleaded guilty to making and supplying drugs
Police say they discovered more than 20kg of powder used to make drugs when executing a search warrant in early 2017 (pictured is the man’s drug lab)
Police found 11.45kg of MDA and 12kg of N-formylamphetamine during the March 2017 raid, and officers spent a further five days taking apart the materials and tools used to create the illicit drugs.
When the man’s children, who were aged one and five at the time of their father’s arrest, were tested for drugs, results showed traces of MDA, which is used in the creation of ecstasy.
The youngsters had lived on the top level of the house, as had the man’s wife.
He pleaded guilty to making and supplying drugs when he appeared at Parramatta District Court, and crown prosecutor John Sfinas warned against granting the man any mercy at sentencing, noting the man’s high-level role in the operation and the fact his illegal activities were carried out in the presence of children.
Police spent five days dismantling the drug lab. Officers also found a pill press, $250,000 in cash
The man’s children, who were aged one and five at the time of his arrest, had been so exposed to the lab that they tested positive for drugs
‘He wasn’t just installed as a cook, he wasn’t someone who was just providing a house,’ he said. ‘He was someone who set up the clandestine lab and cooked.’
The man was arrested as part of a large-scale investigation tracking the source of drugs being smuggled into music festivals throughout Sydney.
The court also heard the man had taken extreme measures to avoid being caught or ripped off. He allegedly put tracking devices on the cars of his customers, which would allow him to find them if they tried to not pay.
Defence counsel for the man, who will be sentenced on March 8, claimed he turned to crime after becoming injured in an industrial accident and losing his business, and suffered depression.
The man, who also allegedly used tracking devices to ensure his customers paid, will be sentenced on March 8