{"id":311864,"date":"2025-08-02T12:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T12:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/311864\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T12:07:17","slug":"birmingham-man-locked-up-for-role-in-plot-to-cook-crystal-met-in-breaking-bad-style-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/311864\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham man locked up for role in plot to cook crystal met in Breaking Bad-style crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan Lacko, aged 49, David Sivak, aged 44, and Mohammed Akhtar, aged 45, worked in co-ordination in the criminal enterprise to cook Methylamphetamine, commonly known as \u2018crystal meth at illegal laboratories across the West Midlands.<\/p>\n

Between 2020 and last year the gang ran multiple makeshift \u2018kitchen laboratories\u2019 in residences where they would use chemistry instruments as well as dangerous chemicals to \u2018cook\u2019 the drugs. But the activity came to a stop last November when Lacko and Akhtar were both arrested while Sivak was arrested \u00a0in January.<\/p>\n

\"JanJan Lacko, David Sivak, and Mohammed Akhtar<\/p>\n

They were arrested after \u00a0officers from West Midlands Police Birmingham<\/a> Serious Organised Crime <\/a>and Exploitation Team (SOCEX) launched an investigation to find where the pills were coming from.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After vehicle stop and checks and raids they found that Akhtar procured the required chemicals, and the bulk delivery of ingredients containing medication from overseas pharmaceutical companies, to Sivak and Lacko.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gang would refer to the drug as \u2018pervitin\u2019 or \u2018piko\u2019 – slang terms for the highly addictive drug.<\/p>\n

After initially denying the offences all three changed their pleas and admitted running the production of methylamphetamine in May this year.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe crystal meth tablets\"Supporting<\/p>\n

Lacko, of Grove Lane, Handsworth, also pleaded guilty to supplying \u00a0methylamphetamine and was jailed for three years and seven months. Sivak, of no fixed address, was jailed for two years and four months.<\/p>\n

While Akhtar, of Rotton Park Road, Edgbaston, was handed a 20-month suspended sentence.<\/p>\n

Sgt Antony Draper<\/a>, from the SOCEX team, said: \u201cCrystal meth has grown large exposure in the public through entertainment, and more specifically US television drama, Breaking Bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the reality of this highly addictive and dangerous drug, is far from glamorous. It is much dirtier, and comes with serious health implications for users. It is highly addictive and takes a huge toll on the human body.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe tools<\/p>\n

\u201cThe production of the drug is also highly dangerous, creating a substantial risk to all those around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“With highly dangerous chemicals involved, the risks of serious injury are incredibly high, due to the large amount of toxic waste produced, as well as toxic fumes \u2013 all which create a dangerous risk of fires and explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a complex investigation that required specialist support from CBRN trained officers to assist with the execution of warrants, scientific and forensic support, translation services, shipping data and mobile phone analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan Lacko, aged 49, David Sivak, aged 44, and Mohammed Akhtar, aged 45, worked in co-ordination in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,188,1354,393,4884,379,12,12608,16,15,10847,4349],"class_list":{"0":"post-311864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-dudley","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-local-hubs","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sandwell","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-walsall","20":"tag-wolverhampton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114959092617688793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}