“Drug sheriff” said to have sold drugs on the darknet – prosecuted

In March this year, the local police went to an apartment in the center of Skövde. The case in question quickly vanished when the police discovered what was hidden inside the door: drugs, medicine, tools, plastic bags, envelopes – a drug factory.

Under aliases such as “Konstapelknark” and “Kemistenshemhjalp”, the two previously unpunished men from Skövde, both born in 1995, are suspected of having sold drugs and drugs on the underground darknet worth SEK 7.6 million over four years.

During the house search 2.5 kilos of cocaine, 6.5 kilos of amphetamine, methamphetamine and more than 1,000 tablets classified as drugs were seized. Sales and administration have been carried out initially from a house in Halmstad and then from the apartment in Skövde.

– It was pure coincidence that we found them, says investigation leader Daniel Lundgren and says that the police did not know the men before.

Wednesday woke up prosecution in Skaraborg District Court for extremely serious drug offenses. Both men deny the criminal accusation, according to Aftonbladet. However, the youngest of the men admitted to having committed a minor drug offense.

This is one of Sweden’s biggest targets when it comes to sales through the darknet, a growing problem. According to police figures, sales of Internet-related drug crimes have doubled in the past year and were estimated at 250 million SEK last year.

But since darknet sales are hidden, the dark figure can be assumed to be large. Skövde’s men are said to have paid in cryptocurrencies and used a service called a mixer, which makes it possible to hide bank accounts and transactions.

– This is a great challenge for us, says Daniel Lundgren, who believes that the police must strengthen their competence to expose crimes online.

The men of Skövde it is suspected of having delivered to at least 1,976 addresses throughout Sweden. Buyers are also in 23 other countries. District Attorney Sofia Karlsson, who led the preliminary investigation, agrees that online crimes are difficult to detect because sellers and buyers don’t need to meet. She sees delivery as the weak point, but believes that postal legislation is an obstacle to detection.

– The post office should have greater opportunities to alert the police when it sees something suspicious. A change in the law may be needed, he says.

Earlier this year it was released a 28-year-old man from Lund who was named responsible for the Flugsvamp 2.0 drug trading site on the darknet. The closure of Flugsvamp 2.0 was seen as a great success for the police, but Skövdefallet shows that the men, who lived in Flugsvamp 2.0, continued to operate on the Flugsvamp 3.0 platform.

The 28-year-old was convicted in the same trial of a felony drug offense. The verdict has been appealed.

Sofia Karlsson thinks convicted in the Skövde case.

– I think the evidence is good, she says.

The trial is scheduled to begin on October 23.

In a parallel case, a father of two children from a small town in Västergötland was recently prosecuted on suspicion of having sold large amounts of amphetamine on the dark web.