Traffic Stop Leads to College Drug Ring's Collapse

When a trooper pulled over 20-year-old Andrew Gajkowski in December, the officer was only planning on giving him a ticket for driving solo in the HOV lane. But then he smelled marijuana wafting out of the window, and searched the car. Even then, what he found was unexpected: A bag filled with hundreds of Ecstasy pills, each stamped with a Rolex logo crown, and a substance later identified in a lab as a key ingredient in the production of the club drug, the Arizona Republic reports. When police later searched the Arizona State University student's apartment, they found more than half a million dollars worth of MDMA and marijuana, along with pill casings, pill presses, narcotic ingredients, and so on—what authorities say was essentially a pill "factory," KPHO reports.

There were tools for imprinting Xanax, Vicodin, and Oxycodone. They also found evidence of an international syndicate's involvement—and at least one of the four other ASU students arrested in the case has alleged that the ring was tied to the Russian mob. Gajkowski would allegedly sell some pills to fellow ASU students; others he allegedly mailed to a PO Box where they would be retrieved by Kevin Kimes, who told police he sold the pills for $15 each, keeping $5 for himself. Kimes pleaded guilty earlier this month. Gajkowski has not done the same; he faces up to 12.5 years in prison. (More MDMA stories.)