A 19-year old UK resident was jailed for a drug trafficking operation. He had participated in an attempt to import ecstasy bought with Bitcoin on the Dark Web.

Buying Dark Web Ecstasy with Bitcoin

The 19-year-old drug dealer is to serve two years in prison after a police investigation discovered he has been dealing with ecstasy using Bitcoin. According to a recent report, Dylan Bailey from Arbury Road, Nuneaton, UK, used to import ecstasy tablets from abroad, aiming to sell the illegal substances to other individuals. He used Bitcoin to buy the ecstasy from the Dark Web.

The report states that the teenager has had a supplier in the Netherlands, who sent him the drugs, hidden in what was supposed to be a DVD case. However, the package sent by post services had Dylan Bailey’s name and address on it.

The parcel was discovered at the Royal Mail’s international logistics center. In the meantime, the police examined several text messages on Bailey’s phone, which proved that he had been selling the drug before.

As per the allegations, in February 2020, an officer at the Royal Mail international logistics center spotted and checked a Netherlands-sent packet that was addressed to Bailey. In it, he found a DVD case with a heat-sealed packaging consisting of 83 pink tablets. They were all embossed with a logo, similar to the one of the Coca-Cola.

The post officer carried out a test that proved the tablets to be ecstasy, reportedly with a street value of up to £5 per piece. Later on, the authorities arrested Bailey at his home.

Police investigations determined that Bailey had also been advertising and offering the product to other people, affirming they would buy “high-strength ‘Super Mario pills.” Some of the clients’ offers reached up to £50 per tablet.

Hijacking Celebrity Phones to Steal Millions in Crypto

In another crypto-related case, police arrested ten individuals from Malta. They have allegedly hijacked the mobile phones of several celebrities to steal their personal information.

The statement from Europol said that the group could have possibly stolen more than $100 million in cryptocurrencies. The operation allegedly used the so-called SIM swap attacks, meaning that criminals deactivate their targets’ SIM cards and transfer them to another system for possession of the illicit group.

After accessing their phone numbers, the operation members took over some of the installed apps using password reset codes. Thus, stealing assets and personal data in the process.

Police have arrested the ten suspects after a joint operation of Maltese, American, British, Canadian, and Belgian authorities.