Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: tjames55 on January 31, 2013, 12:11 pm
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Hi all,
Here is an article printed today (31st Jan 2013) re a criminal trial in Melbourne, Victoria.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/secret-website-harboured-drugs-smorgasbord-court-hears-20130131-2dlw3.html
Secret website harboured drugs smorgasbord, court hears:
A judge has expressed fears about a secretive eBay-like online marketplace a man used to buy illegal drugs for his "smorgasbord" trafficking operation.
Melbourne's County Court heard the black-market Silk Road had been described as a "certifiable one-stop shop" for illicit drugs.
Consumers protected by anonymity browsed catalogues of substances on Silk Road and users were given positive or negative ratings by other users based on their dealings.
Prosecutor Morgan Brown told the court the website was accessed by software designed to enable online anonymity and a digital "virtual currency", Bitcoin, was used to buy goods.
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Judge Damien Murphy commented that anyone with a computer could access the website and he added: "Any kid short of money can become a part-time drug importer."
Judge Murphy on Wednesday described Paul Leslie Howard – who used Silk Road to import cocaine, MDMA and amphetamine and trafficked those drugs and also LSD, methamphetamine and marijuana – as operating a "smorgasbord drug-market operation".
He said Howard, 32, was a "like a street vendor with a smorgasbord out the front of his house" or with a garage sale "but in this case it's on the internet".
In what could be the first prosecution with Silk Road a major player, Ms Brown told the court that in two months from March last year Howard imported drugs 11 times.
Ms Brown said Australian Customs and Border Protection Service officers in Melbourne and Sydney examined mail articles addressed to Howard at his Brunswick West home.
Most were sent from the Netherlands; two were from Germany.
The total pure weight of MDMA was 46.9 grams and the pure weight of cocaine 14.5 grams.
Australian Federal Police members who raided Howard's home on July 12 found various amounts of marijuana and items that included digital scales, clip seal bags, $2300 cash, a money counter and 35 stun guns disguised as mobile phones.
Ms Brown said a later forensic analysis of two authentic mobile phones found 10,700 messages on one and 9700 on the other.
She told the court the analysis revealed incriminating text messages that included "I got 5 grand worth if you want", " ... promote the LSD I got more in. I sold 200 cubes last week" and "no cubes left atm but some other 'things' u might like!".
Ms Brown said Silk Road was an online "marketplace with similar characteristics to eBay" that Howard registered an account with in April until July 17.
She quoted an example of a post he made when he wrote: "Hey guys, I'm just starting out here. I'm Aus based and only shipping to Aus as not to roach on anyone's turf.
"I'll be basically doing dutch (sic) speed and Peruvian Charlie to start and branch into more as I get coin back in my pocket.
"I source from both sr and non sr vendors but I prefer the sr system as far as selling is concerned! So yeah that's me story and I'm keen for any tips or just some chat from you guys as I'm still learning!"
Defence barrister JJ Jassar tendered an article on Silk Road by Melbourne writer, journalist and blogger Eiley Ormsby from which he said Howard found the website.
Mr Jassar told Judge Murphy that Ms Ormsby was in court and that her piece – Silk Road: The eBay of Illegal Drugs – was the first views on the website by a journalist.
(Ms Ormsby later told Fairfax Media the piece was published in October).
Mr Jassar said Howard also viewed a YouTube video and bought from the website after he "put himself out there as a purchaser" and that he had to "prove himself for people to be able to supply him".
Under increasing financial pressure after he was forced to close an unrelated business website and with his wife not working, Howard made the "naive, stupid and foolish" decision to import and deal drugs, he said.
Mr Jassar described Howard's involvement as without sophistication, complexity or any real planning.
His tearful wife told Judge Murphy she faced returning to the US if her husband was jailed because she could not work or support herself.
In her sentencing submissions, Ms Brown said a maximum term of three to five years with a minimum term of two to three years was within the range.
Howard pleaded guilty to two charges of importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug – which carries a maximum of 25 years jail – and to trafficking controlled drugs.
Howard, who also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing 32 controlled weapons, was remanded in custody for sentencing next week.
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Clearly the wife must've sold out imo... not that I could really make sense of the end of the article or anything. 2-3 years ain't shit.
Also sounds like a few judges around the world need drugs shipped to them.
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Holy shit... Its amazing how long this shit takes to become public knowledge...... Thats a lot of texts too.... He must have been doing some biz.
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Always go to the source ( http://www.austlii.edu.au/ ) though this has only been available since Feb 6.
1 Paul Leslie Howard, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug contrary to s307.2(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth), one charge of trafficking a controlled drug contrary to sub-s302.4(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth), and to a summary offence under s5AA of the Control of Weapons Act 1990, in that you did possess a prohibited weapon without exemption.
2 The maximum penalty for charges 1 and 2 is 5,000 penalty units and/or 25 years’ imprisonment. The maximum penalty for trafficking a controlled drug is 10 years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of 2,000 penalty units. The maximum penalty for the summary offence is 240 penalty units and/or 2 years’ imprisonment.
3 The circumstances of the offending emerged in the Crown opening, which was not the subject of dispute by your Counsel, and which was read in open Court.
4 Charge 1 is a rolled-up charge encompassing nine separate importations by mail of MDMA over the period 27 March 2012 to 29 June 2012.
5 Charge 2 is a rolled-up charge encompassing two separate importations by mail of cocaine over the period 1 May 2012 to 16 June 2012.
6 Charge 3 is a rolled-up charge encompassing trafficking of controlled drugs, namely cocaine, MDMA, methylamphetamine, LSD, amphetamine and cannabis, over the period 27 January 2012 to 18 July 2012.
7 The summary charge relates to you being found in possession of 35 battery-powered stun guns in the shape of mobile phones when your flat was searched by police officers on 18 July 2012.
Seriousness of the offences
8 By virtue of the maximum penalty provided by Parliament, charges 1 and 2 are inherently serious offences. The particular circumstances of an offence, however, can vary. A marketable quantity of MDMA is 0.5 of a gram. The offence was committed by the importation of nine separate packages that had a total weight of 46.9 grams of MDMA. The total weight imported was therefore about 93 times the minimum marketable quantity, and around 10 per cent of a commercial quantity, which is 0.5 of a kilogram.
9 In relation to charge 2, which involved two importations, the total pure weight of cocaine was 14.5 grams, around seven times a marketable quantity of 2 grams.
The circumstances of the offending
10 Customs officers working at gateway facilities located in Melbourne and Sydney examined, over the period 27 March 2012 to 28 June 2012, twelve mail articles addressed to you at your flat in Brunswick West. Ten of the mail articles had been sent from the Netherlands, and two had been sent from Germany. Nine of those articles were found to contain various small amounts of MDMA in both powder and tablet form, and sealed within various items such as a DVD case, piece of card, a digital thermometer, and cigarette lighters. One shipment was concealed within a small torch which consisted of a clip-seal bag containing a brown crystalline substance wrapped in aluminium foil and with a net weight of 6.8 grams, being MDMA with a purity of 72.7 per cent. Two contained cocaine.
11 You did not actually receive the intercepted imported border controlled drugs contained therein. The purity of the drugs imported varied from 47.7 per cent to 79.4 per cent.
12 Police, on 18 July 2012, searched your property, and at that stage found a number of items consistent with trafficking in the drugs listed in charge 3. These included a kitty-litter tray containing 142.9 grams of cannabis, another bag containing 425.6 grams of cannabis, some immature cannabis plants weighing 1.9 grams, a clip-seal bag containing 422.6 grams of cannabis, a clipboard with amphetamine and caffeine residue, three sets of digital scales, a box containing a large quantity of clip bags, $2,300 in cash, opened envelopes addressed to you with postal addresses from the Netherlands and Canada, as well as three computers. There was also a notebook discovered. Also located were envelopes addressed to individuals containing a small quantity of methylamphetamine within plastic clip-seal bags. Police also executed a warrant on your black BMW sedan and located a plastic bag containing five cubes of an unknown substance and an Apple iPhone. Testing on the cubes was inconclusive.
13 The total of the various substances at your premises was as follows: cannabis - 993.4 grams; dimethyltryptamine - 7 grams; cocaine - less than .1 gram; MDMA - 1.6 grams; amphetamine - 1.4 grams; methylamphetamine - 0.47 grams. In a notebook were various notes in relation to current orders including references to ‘1 g MDMA’ and ‘9 g shard’. Shard is a colloquial term for methylamphetamine.
14 Analysis of the computers seized showed that there were image files on the computers showing substances placed on pieces of paper which also included the reference ‘Shadh1 AUS’ written on it. Those were saved into a folder, and it was the Crown case that those images were for the purpose of posting on the ‘ Silk Road ’ website. Other drug-related material was found on the computer search. Analysis of the mobile phones contained numerous references to buying and selling of various amounts of drugs. On one phone there were 152 drug-trafficking related messages in the week prior to your arrest. The same applied to the analysis of the Apple iPhone, which had numerous references in text messages indicative of trafficking activities, including references to having drugs received from overseas available. On both handsets seized there were thousands of messages.
Use of Silk Road website
15 An analysis of your computers indicated that on 19 April 2012 you had registered on an online marketplace website known as Silk Road . This website uses a particular brand of software, known as Tor, designed to enable online anonymity by the use of encrypted routing through multiple servers. The site allows use of a virtual currency that facilitates transactions, and which cannot be traced. It was the Crown case, which I accept, that you registered this account to traffic drugs to other Silk Road users, and posts on the account indicate that you had also purchased drugs using that website. This particular site has been described as a “certifiable one-stop shop for illegal drugs”.
35 Turning to the specific matters in s16A of the Crimes Act (Cth), I have already referred to the circumstances of the offences, your early plea of guilty, remorse, cooperation with the police, and lack of prior convictions, all of which I take into account.
36 As there is an overlap as to the period of offending between counts 1 and 2, and they constitute effectively a single course of conduct, I regard it as appropriate to order that the sentences are concurrent.
37 In relation to the trafficking offence, charge 3, the element of seriousness relates to the fact that it occurred over a six-month period, and it is clear from the Crown summary that you were involved in active trafficking over that period of a number of drugs. This is evidenced by the range of drugs in your possession when you were arrested, the cash seized, and the high number of messages on the mobile phones that were seized at your premises. The contents of some of the messages are set out in the Crown Opening. On the other hand, save as to the cash seized, there is no evidence of significant betterment as a result of the trafficking. Given the opinion of the psychologist that you were a drug-user at the time, there is at least an inference available that the trafficking was partially to fund your own use of the drugs, as well as to address financial problems.
38 In relation to sentencing principles, I have sought to apply the principles set out in Nguyen v R[1] at [34]. I must regard imprisonment as a sanction of last resort and apply principles of parsimony and totality. I accept the Crown submission that general deterrence is to be accorded very considerable weight. A sentence of imprisonment to be immediately served is called for. The ease of access to what is virtually an online supermarket of illegal drugs via the Silk Road website means that general deterrence is very important in relation to counts 1 and 2. It has been repeatedly noted by appellate Courts that drug importation is often difficult to accept, and thus general deterrence is important. A message must be sent to those tempted to utilise the internet to access prohibited drugs for their own use or resale, that heavy penalties will follow. General deterrence is also a salient consideration in relation to the drug-trafficking offence, particularly given the significant period over which you engaged in the conduct. Those tempted to sell illegal drugs to others must understand that the Courts will come down hard on them. Specific deterrence is also a matter to be considered, although less weight is to be accorded here, given your lack of prior convictions and what I regard as your very good prospects of rehabilitation.
39 I am unable to accord any significant weight to the impact of your sentence on your wife Mallory Howard. She has no dependents, and has sought to establish her own business. What was put on her behalf does not meet the requirement that the impact on a family member be such as to be exceptional and thus call for a moderation of a prison sentence.
40 It is always in the community interest that offenders are rehabilitated. My assessment of your prospects of rehabilitation is that they are very good. In reaching this conclusion I have considered your letter to the Court, and relied on the evidence of your spouse, Ms Howard, as well as the reference that has been supplied by a friend of yours, Mr Hickey, and the opinion of Dr Wauchope, as well as the remorse that you have evidenced and the actions that you have taken since your arrest, which evidence insight, and where you have sought to address the underlying causes of your offending. Perhaps most significantly, you have now reached the age of thirty-two, and this is the first time you have been before a Court for a criminal offence, which bodes well for your rehabilitation after you have served the least possible sentence to atone for your conduct over the early months of last year. I have taken into account your prospects of rehabilitation in fixing both a total effective sentence, and a period after which you will be eligible for parole.
41 In sentencing you, not only must I weigh considerations of just punishment, denunciation, general and specific deterrence, but also the community interest in your reintegration into society.
Sentencing range
42 The Crown submitted that an appropriate sentencing range would be a head sentence of between three and five years with a non-parole period of two to three years. Your Counsel submitted that this range was too high, and he sought a non-custodial disposition. The Crown provided a chart of some comparable trafficking cases. Your Counsel referred to a couple of cases. As both trafficking drugs and importation can occur in such a variety of circumstances as to value, quantum, role, and mode, I have not found the cases of much assistance. I have already indicated that I regard the seriousness of the offending here, particularly that involving charges 1 and 3, and to extent charge 2, whether considered individually or as a course of criminal conduct, as calling, in the interests of general deterrence and denunciation, for a sentence of imprisonment to be immediately served.
Sentence
43 On Charge 1, importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug, you are sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment.
44 On Charge 2, importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug, you are sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.
45 On Charge 3, trafficking in a controlled drug, you are sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment.
46 On the summary charge of possession of a controlled weapon you are fined $1,000.
47 I direct that the sentences on charges 1 and 2 commence on this day. I direct that the sentence on charge 3 commence six months prior to the end of the sentence on charge 1, making a total effective sentence of three years and six months’ imprisonment. I direct that you serve a minimum term of one year and nine months before you are eligible for parole.
48 I declare that you have served seven days’ pre-sentence detention.
49 Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991 I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, I would have imposed a total effective sentence of 5 years and 3 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 3 years and 6 months.
50 I am required to explain the sentence to you. On Charges 1 and 2 I have sentenced you to 2 ½ years’ imprisonment respectively. Those sentences are to run together. On Charge 3 I have sentenced you to 18 months’ imprisonment. One year of that sentence is to be served after the expiry of the sentence imposed on Charge 1, making a total effective sentence of 3 ½ years.
51 After serving 21 months’ imprisonment you will be eligible to apply for parole. On the summary charge of possession of a controlled weapon, you are fined $1000. I grant you a stay of 3 months to pay the fine.
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Excellent job posting the sentencing. +1 for you :)
I was at the sentencing hearing, which went for 5 or 6 hours. It was interesting seeing the judge and barristers getting their heads around SR.
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This is why you don't try to import significant weight into Australia. Over an ounce from Netherlands would be likely to make it into USA, but if you are in Australia keep it to 5 grams or so I would say. People debate about how effective Australian customs are, but just the number of stories we hear of people having interceptions of fairly small orders (ounce) is enough for me to be convinced that it is harder to import into Australia than most places.
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He only got three and a half years!
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Pity we can't get hold of the entire court transcript so we could break down how the cops built their case. I'm guessing with a peanut like that
with no concept of subtlety, he probably attracted so much attention on the street, they decided no serious connect is going to sell to him (for good
reason considering how fast he rolled on SR and the one supplier he did have, though that may have been a bullshit connect that he made up to help
with sentencing) and decided to have a look at his incoming mail for his source. Technically the transcript should be public record but I don't know
how to get hold of them.
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OzFreelancer don't take that last post the wrong way, if you were at the sentencing hearing you probably
have some connection to him. But if someone had slapped him nice and hard and told him to pull his head in a
bit earlier he wouldn't be sitting in jail for the next 19 months.
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OzFreelancer don't take that last post the wrong way, if you were at the sentencing hearing you probably
have some connection to him. But if someone had slapped him nice and hard and told him to pull his head in a
bit earlier he wouldn't be sitting in jail for the next 19 months.
No, I'm the 'Ms Ormsby' mentioned in the first post ;)
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99.99% chance the investigation into him started with an intercepted package
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I feel the guy, after all, he wasn't really hurting anyone and I hate to think how much of our tax $$ were spend apprehending and locking up this "most dangerous of criminals". :)
But at he same time, thank fuck for low hanging fruit!
Well done piggies and customs, you really got your man. The street are so much safer now and Australia's a better place. Youre all doing a smashing job and I hope you sleep well at night, knowing that youre blowing the taxpayers money and locking up people that are doing FUCK ALL harm. FUCK YOU
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He is lucky he only got 3 years and a half!