Two robot drug dealers have made £3.7 million post cocaine trade using the popular encrypted messaging app called Telegram. They had also traded other drugs such as LSD & MDMA using the same app. They have been indicted for 24 years (288 months).
The accused duo had been identified to be Jehanzeb Amar aged 29 years belonging from London and Salahydin Warsame aged 29 years from Birmingham. They had advertised and sold cocaine in huge quantities under the brand called “LetsWork”. The brand also sold narcotics to the buyers on the dark web.
The robot drug dealers used unique tactics to sell off their drug stocks. They had set up an automated bot for taking the customers’ orders. The app furnished their customers with the regular updates. This included an apology for supply issues owing to the novel Coronavirus pandemic.
The Metropolitan police officers had unveiled the lucrative narcotics business back in February last year. This was post raiding a van that Warsame drove. The cops found heroin masked in a remote control hydraulic secret space in the car. Then they uncovered several packages that had been addressed to various locations Wales, England, North Ireland and Scotland, ready to be sent through the Post Office.
A later search was held in the property that unveiled 2000 LSD tablets, mobile phones, cutting agents, laptops, Cryptocurrency wallets, drugs packaging, a labelling printer and jiffy bags that were associated with the supply. The investigation had yielded cash worth £100,000. The cops had also recovered Bitcoin (BTC).
In October last year it had been reported that the drug suppliers were operating a “Robot Dealer Service” utilising Televend. It automates the complete drug selling process from the beginning till the end. This enabled the dealers to run a business 24/7 even when they are asleep.
Both the robot drug dealers had been convicted at the Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday. They had been charged with conspiracy to supply class A narcotics. The dealer duo received 13.5 years and 10.5 years of conviction respectively.
“My team worked closely with the Met’s Economic Crime Team and the Cyber Crime Unit who have the capability to tackle organised crime of this type carried out over the dark web and social media apps.”
“Amar and Warsame mistakenly believed that they could act with impunity carrying out this multi-million pound drug enterprise online,” said Detective Sergeant Damian Hill, of the Met’s specialist crime south command.
“Anyone considering ordering illegal drugs online using cryptocurrencies should be aware they are not doing this anonymously and are at risk of prosecution as well as leaving themselves vulnerable to the organised criminal networks whom they have provided their names and home addresses to.”
Telegram had been reached out for comments but no response had been received from their end at the time of publication.
Source: Vice
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