A blonde Love Island contestant dubbed “Barbie” is starting a 14-year stretch behind bars for helping a major international crime cartel flood UK streets with illegal drugs.
Prosecutors said Magdalena Sadlo, 30, acted as the business brain for top table crooks based in the Middle East, painstakingly preparing criminal accounts.
Gang members in Dubai — where Sadlo worked legitimately in hospitality — masterminded a conspiracy to ship enormous sums of cocaine into the UK which a judge described as “eye-opening”.
Well qualified Sadlo — who featured in Love Island’s Polish version during 2021 — was drafted in to help, prosecutor Tim Evans told Carlisle Crown Court, engaging in multi-faceted illegal activity.
As a criminal courier, Sadlo repeatedly collected vast quantities of cocaine as it was imported into the port of Harwich.
A police drug expert concluded she could have trafficked almost 300kg of cocaine in seven trips, including a whopping 33kg to Greater Manchester on one date alone.
Over several months she transported it around England in pricey BMWs during “whistle-stop” tours.
Cocaine was stored initially in safe houses and then moved around the country by a team of trusted drivers for onward supply to addicts.
Beach body: Sadlo poses on the beach while a contestant on the Polish Love Island series
While based in the Middle East, Sadlo was a trusted financial director, the court heard, diligently documenting many millions of pounds in drug transactions on spreadsheets.
Mr Evans said: ‘She not only manages the profits, costs and expenses but also manages the stock levels, updating who has taken what, at what cost, from what batch and the profit margins involved.
‘No organised crime group working at this level could operate or function without Magdalena Sadlo, or an equivalent, performing this role.’
Sadlo was ‘enthusiastically, relentlessly efficient in her accounting’, suggested the prosecutor, scolding major players when they did not meet her high standards.
Mr Evans also alleged: ‘She is very much part of the inner circle… and is operating and seated at the very highest of tables.’
Detectives from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit detained Sadlo as she arrived into the UK on February 13, 2024, having flown Emirates first class from Dubai.
She was carrying a £130,000 rose gold Patek Phillipe watch, £30,000 Rolex timepiece with Cartier bracelets and rings, bought with criminal cash, plus a cv boasting her business acumen and qualifications.
Officers also seized mobile phones and laptops containing criminal profit spreadsheets which showed ketamine and cannabis was also being supplied.
Sadlo’s less-glamorous police mugshot after her arrest for involvement with criminal gang
After Sadlo provided PIN details, officers also unearthed a mass of encrypted group chat messages. In these, she and other high ranking crooks discussed vast amounts of money linked to drug supply.
Sadlo had the nickname “Barbie”, detectives learned. In one message, she quipped: ‘The devil works hard, but Barbie works harder.’
On one phone, Sadlo made web searches, in January 2024, for ’50kg cocaine June news UK’ and ‘which countries have the death penalty for drugs’.
Mr Evans said: ‘She clearly knew the scale and seriousness of the trade she was engaging in.’
Sadlo, of Bracknell, Berkshire, was sentenced today having earlier admitted conspiring to supply cocaine, cannabis and ketamine; and conspiracy to launder money.
Twelve men have already been handed sentences totalling more than 100 years for their role in a plot which was blown apart after police seized a kilo of cocaine in the Lake District.
Judge Nicholas Barker likened the illegal activity to ‘unrolling a ball of wool around the world’.
Defence barrister Peter Corrigan said Sadlo disputed elements of the prosecution case. She had played a lesser criminal role than alleged, said Mr Corrigan, against the background of drug addiction.
In a letter, Sadlo expressed remorse having fallen on hard times and been susceptible to others. She was highly regarded by friends and family.
Sadlo was ‘highly regarded’ by friends and family but is now beginning a long prison term
Sadlo ‘basked in the lifestyle’ while acting as courier for an international cartel, the court heard
Judge Barker concluded Sadlo, as a courier, was “central” in the collection of that drug and onward distribution.
He said: ‘I conclude there was gain and reward and in some way considerable to you.
‘You are an intelligent woman and well understand risk and reward.’
Sadlo’s criminal conduct escalated while based in the Middle East when, the judge concluded, she had ‘basked in the lifestyle’.
Sadlo was not a peer of the cartel but could not have been closer to the centre, said Judge Barker, who told the defendant: ‘I find you acted with real enthusiasm and sought to impress those at top.’
