Joshua Hanley, who has been arrested for supplying the potentially deadly drug Batman. Photo: Supplied

They appeared to be three normal northern beaches mates who liked to ski together and party hard.

But police believe the trio of 23-year-old school friends are behind the spread of one of the most potent and potentially deadly batches of ecstasy pills the state has seen.

A warning was issued in August after police detected a batch of blue pills stamped with a Batman logo and spiked with the deadly 25c-NBOMe, a synthetic LSD-like substance linked to the deaths of several young people, including north shore teenager Henry Kwan.

Arrested: Zac Fenson. Photo: Supplied

The pills had turned up in the southern region of NSW, on the state's ski fields and at a party in the Hawkesbury, where several users had bad reactions, prompting police to warn partygoers about the "extremely potent psychoactive substance responsible for a number of deaths in Australia and overseas".

Advertisement

Fearing potentially deadly consequences, police began a full-scale operation in May to trace the source of the pills and shut down the network of suppliers.

Detectives stormed a hotel room in Sutton on Friday night, in the state's alpine region, where they arrested Jeffrey Gilmour, 23, from Collaroy Plateau and Zachary Fenson, 23, from Wheeler Heights,

The potentially deadly Batman pills. Photo: Supplied

Read the original:

Boys behind Batman pills unmasked: police