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The 30-year-old reality TV personality is facing a potential 20-year prison sentence for allegedly orchestrating a drug operation. Once a star in the neon-lit world of Love Island Poland, Magdalena Sadlo, also known as ‘Kingpin Barbie,’ now finds herself at the centre of a crime story that seems straight out of a noir thriller. The 30-year-old reality TV personality is facing a potential 20-year prison sentence for allegedly orchestrating a drug operation, described by investigators as operating with the efficiency of Amazon.
Sadlo, who appeared on the 2021 season of the popular dating show, is accused of playing a key role in a large-scale trafficking network that smuggled cocaine, ketamine, and cannabis from the Netherlands to the UK. According to authorities, the drugs passed through Manchester-based safe houses before they were distributed across the country. The logistics? Apparently slick.
The scale? Enormous. And as for the money? It flowed—some of it into Sadlo’s taste for high-end fashion and watches, reportedly including a Patek Philippe and a Rolex. Prosecutors believe she used her position to help launder the profits with all the flair of someone who knows their way around a luxury showroom.
Now here’s where it gets even more jaw-dropping. Despite her claims of playing only a small admin role, the court heard a very different story. Prosecutors at Carlisle Crown Court painted her as the brains behind the business – not just shuffling paperwork, but actively managing and directing key parts of the operation from abroad.
They say she was effectively the cartel’s financial chief, tracking everything from smuggled stock to profit margins – all meticulously logged in spreadsheets from her Dubai base. Among her alleged duties? Collecting large drug hauls from the Essex port of Harwich and shifting them around England in BMWs. On one occasion alone, Sadlo is said to have transported a staggering 33kg of cocaine to Greater Manchester, reports The Sun.
“She not only manages the profits, costs and expenses but also 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 function without Magdalena Sadlo, or an equivalent, performing this role," explained Prosecutor Tim Evans. “Sadlo was enthusiastically, relentlessly efficient and told others off when they did not meet her standards.
She is very much part of the inner circle – seated at the very highest of tables," he added. That paints quite the contrast to the version Sadlo reportedly offered — a personal assistant with only minor involvement. When police arrested her at Heathrow in February last year, she’d just stepped off a first-class flight from Dubai with her luxury jewellery and a “crime CV," outlining her business background and qualifications.
Encrypted chats discovered on her phone even revealed her nickname – a nod to her TV past and criminal rebranding. In one message, she joked, “The devil works hard, but Barbie works harder." While Sadlo remains in custody awaiting sentencing, thirteen of her associates from the Dubai-based syndicate are already behind bars—each serving terms of up to 20 years.
Her hearing has been postponed until 13 June. Her barrister maintains that she had no leadership role and insists her part in the cartel was minor..
