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Champion European race car driver sentenced in Ecstasy case

MIAMI - A 37-year-old citizen of Poland was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno yesterday to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release following a six-month undercover investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Mariusz Dawid Malyszczycki, a successful competitive race car driver in Poland before he was extradited to the United States for this case, had been convicted of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as Ecstasy.

In 2004, ICE agents received a tip that Malyszczycki and another man, co-conspirator Peter Plinelis, 39, formerly residing in Pompano Beach, were involved in the smuggling of Ecstasy from Europe to the United States.

On March 25, 2004, two undercover agents from ICE and the Miami Dade Police Department set up a meeting with Malyszczycki and Plinelis at a Don Pan Bakery in Miami. At the meeting, Malyszczycki and Plinelis asked the undercover agents if they had any connections at the Miami Seaport that would enable them to smuggle containers into the United States without having to clear customs.

Malyszczycki and Plinelis told the undercover agents they had 50,000 pills of Ecstasy to smuggle. They told the undercover agents the Ecstasy would be coming straight from Holland and would be 100 percent pure. Additionally, Malyszczycki and Plinelis told the undercover agents they wanted to establish a long-term business relationship. The undercover agents agreed to buy a sample of the Malyszczycki and Plinelis' imported ecstasy before they would agree to do more deals.

On March 30, 2004, Malyszczycki, Plinelis, and the two undercover agents met again at the Don Pan Bakery. Malyszczycki and Plinelis said they had 50,000 pills of Ecstasy ready to be sold in Canada. They then asked the undercover agents if they had a connection in Canada to smuggle the 50,000 pills into the United States. Additionally, Malyszczycki and Plinelis told undercover agents they had 3,000 pills of Ecstasy to sell them immediately as a sample. The undercover agents agreed to buy 1,000 pills of the drug.

On April 23, 2004, undercover agents met Plinelis at the Don Pan Bakery and bought 1,002 pills of Ecstasy from him. Malyszczycki had already returned to his place of residence in Poland.

The ICE-led investigation resulted in the seizure of an additional 40,000 tablets of Ecstasy, a vehicle, and the arrest and federal convictions of two co-conspirators, Plinelis and Barbara Klinkosz, 42, a Polish citizen.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Luck.