NSW Police have arrested a 33-year-old man accused of running a drug business with the aid of the dark web, seizing "$350,000 worth of cryptocurrency" and other items in the process.
Officers from Strike Force Bergmark, Operation Odin and the state crime command’s cybercrime squad executed a warrant on a unit in Vaucluse in Sydney’s eastern suburbs yesterday.
There they "seized cocaine, computers, mobile phones, a diamond ring, $70,000 cash and $350,000 worth of cryptocurrency".
Bergmark was set up in February this year to investigate a suspected syndicate allegedly operating a “drug importation ring”.
Police said they suspected drugs including ketamine MDMA and cocaine were being mailed from Europe to Australia via the post.
"With the assistance of Australian Border Force, Australian Federal Police and other interstate policing jurisdictions; several dozen suspicious packages were tracked and intercepted arriving into NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia from January this year," authorities said.
The arrested man was taken to Waverley Police Station and "charged with 45 counts of import commercial quantities of border controlled drugs, supply commercial quantity of prohibited drugs, direct a criminal group and recklessly deal in proceeds of crime", according to a police statement.
He was refused bail to appear at Waverley Local Court today.
Police will allege the man is the head of the Australian arm of the syndicate "and distributed illicit drug packages across Australia."
NSW Police said that a second search warrant was also executed "at a financial institution in the city and documents were seized", though no further details were provided.
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