News Release [print friendly page]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2007
Tony Pettigrew
617-557-2138

Former Pharmacy Student Sentenced to Jail in Ecstasy Attempt

JUL 12 -- BOSTON, MA - A Dudley woman was sentenced late yesterday in federal court for attempting to manufacture ecstasy.

June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England and United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan , announced that DIANA PIESAK, age 24, of 7 Third Avenue, Dudley, Massachusetts, was sentenced to 1 ½ years imprisonment, to be followed by two years of supervised release, and a $ 1,000 fine. PIESAK was convicted by a trial jury of Attempted Manufacture of Ecstasy on April 11, 2007.

Evidence presented during trial proved that PIESAK, a one-time student a the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, purchased and stored in an apartment she shared with her sister, father and grandmother, ingredients and products that are used to manufacture ecstasy. Evidence recovered from her computer showed that beginning in December 2005, PIESAK conducted internet searches and downloaded literature on how to make ecstasy. The evidence also showed that PIESAK then systematically went about ordering online, the chemicals, glassware and other laboratory apparatus needed to make ecstasy. PIESAK never began the production process.

On March 28, 2006, federal agents, assisted by forensic chemists conducted a search warrant at PIESAK’s residence and recovered glassware, chemicals and other items, including sassafras oil, needed to manufacture ecstasy, as well as the formulas that PIESAK downloaded from the internet for manufacturing ecstasy. Following her arrest, PIESAK admitted that she had purchased the chemicals and items to make ecstasy, but after being interviewed by agents about an unrelated matter in January 2006, she abandoned the project.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division, Worcester Tactical Diversion Squad.