Three men sentenced for failed ecstasy plot

Jon Curtis, 41, Mohammed Habib, 30, and Samson MacNab, 22, all from the city, were found guilty of conspiracy last week after a seven-week trial.

The men planned to manufacture and sell large quantities of ecstasy pills along with a fourth man known as ‘Mr T’ for legal reasons.

They were jailed for 10 years each, with Mr T due to be sentenced later

Devon and Cornwall Police said they believed the gang aimed to make more than 30,000 pills - with an estimated street value of more than £300,000.

The court heard the men formed a criminal gang between May and July 2011 and decided to make MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and sell it for a profit.

Habib, 30, and Mr T came up with the idea of manufacturing the drug before contacting the other members of the gang.

MacNab, 22, was the source of the chemicals, which he bought over the internet; and Curtis, 41, provided a flat, in St Barnabas Terrace, Stoke, for the laboratory, the court was told.

The gang is thought to have planned to make between 3.1kg and 4.9kg of the drug MDMA to process into pills.

However the gang never completed the plan after Mr T fell out with the other members.

Police said that Mr T approached them following death threats from other members of the gang.

This started an 18-month investigation, which saw police seize mobile phones from all of the men, except MacNab.

Det Con Shaun Friend, of the Serious and Organised Crime Team for Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "Mr T was able to give us an insight into how the conspiracy worked, but obviously we needed to put that into evidence, so that we could bring in the other conspirators."

Police recovered a text sent by MacNab to Curtis which referred to 10,000 pills of 100 micrograms each.

Officers seized a number of drug-making items from Mr T's flat, but when they raided St Barnabas Terrace, they found the laboratory had been dismantled.

However Curtis, Habib and MacNab were caught following an18 month investigation by Devon and Cornwall Police.

Det Con Friend said: "They attempted to make a massive amount of profit.

"They were not small drug dealers on the street, these are the people who are actually making the large substantial kilos of Class A drugs.

"Those drugs would have been available on the streets of Plymouth in an untested and unsafe state."

DC Friend said the case was "rare" in that they were able to "find the drugs before they were made".

Two other men charged with the conspiracy offence were found not guilty.