Photo Courtesy of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office
A search warrant executed at the lab netted barrels of chemicals, along with beakers, test tubes, and powders that are consistent with the production of ecstasy.
By Michael V. Cusenza
An Elmhurst man has admitted to authorities that he has been operating a chemical lab in Suffolk County in which he cooked up and curated large amounts of ecstasy and marijuana, according to federal prosecutors.
Joseph Guida, 44, an employee of the City Department of Environmental Protection, was taken into custody on Monday in Queens by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents.
According to the criminal complaint, on Wednesday, Dec. 5, officers of HSI’s Customs and Border Protection intercepted a package that was mailed from a location in China to Guida’s Elmhurst residence. Before the package was delivered, a border search was conducted, which revealed the presence of a white powdery substance. A subsequent chemical analysis confirmed that the substance was methylglycidate, a precursor to MDMA or ecstasy.
On Thursday, Dec. 13, HSI Special Agent Kevin Russell and other law enforcement officers visited Guida in Elmhurst.
“After meeting the defendant, I left my telephone contact information with him,” Russell stated in the complaint. “Following that meeting, the defendant placed a telephone call to me—which I recorded—and stated, in substance, that he maintained a residence in Mastic, New York, which he used as a ‘cook lab’ to produce quantities of MDMA. Guida further stated, in substance, that he cultivated marijuana at the Mastic lab and that quantities of MDMA were located inside of the Mastic lab.”
That night, after Suffolk County detectives obtained a search warrant, authorities descended on the lab location and discovered barrels of chemicals, along with beakers, test tubes, and powders that are consistent with the production of MDMA for sale; and a large quantity of plants that field-tested positive for marijuana, Russell noted.
