Ecstasy Lab Owner, City Worker From Queens, Pleads Guilty: Feds

ELMHURST, QUEENS — A city employee living in Elmhurst pleaded guilty Wednesday to manufacturing ecstasy and growing marijuana in a home on Long Island, federal prosecutors announced.

Joseph Guida, 45, was working for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection while running the clandestine drug lab in Mastic, Long Island, prosecutors said.

Authorities discovered the lab in 2018 after intercepting a package of chemicals used to make ecstasy that was mailed from China to Guida's home in Queens, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Guida admitted to Homeland Security agents that he'd ordered the chemicals and used the Mastic home to make ecstasy, or MDMA, and grow marijuana, according to prosecutors.

Law enforcement agents found 36 marijuana plants, 1.3 kilograms of marijuana and lab equipment for manufacturing ecstasy during a search of the Mastic home, prosecutors said.

Guida will face up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing.