A couple who fronted a major dark web drug operation from their terraced house must pay back £120,000 of their ill-gotten gains - or face more jail time.
Anthony Reid and Zadia Salami were sentenced to a total of 15 years and six months for conspiring to supply Class A drugs.
They were caught after officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) raided their home in Cairns Street, Toxteth.
The address was targeted after £120,000 worth of crystal meth was intercepted in Coventry and followed to the L8 area.
IT expert Anthony Reid admitted earning up to £60,000 from his banking job - but he wanted more.
Investigations into his computer revealed incriminating data detailing thousands of pounds worth of drug orders dispatched to customers all over the country, including Scotland.
The 37-year-old was involved in numerous deals a day.
More than half a million pounds worth of methamphetamine was found at Cairns Street, along with wholesale amounts of other Class A and Class B drugs.
The drug deals were paid for using the cryptocurrency bitcoin and there were two email addresses which could be used to trade in the currency.
Reid, prosecutors said, "stood at the heart of the importations" and his "supply network allowed for an expansive and nationwide trade in these substances."
Drug dealing paraphernalia found in Liverpool included heat sealing and labelling machines, Jiffy bags and bulking substances including Epsom Salts and acetone, were also found at this major drugs distribution centre.
About three and a half kilos of crystal meth was found, mostly in a safe.
Reid was jailed for 12 years and Salami, now 32, for three and a half years.
Now, after the NWROCU launched an investigation into their finances, Reid was ordered to pay back £113,976.18 under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
The hearing at Liverpool Crown Court found that the pair had benefited from their crimes to the sum of £609,406.
He must pay back the money within three months, or he will face a further 15 months behind bars.
Salami was previously ordered to pay back £5,000 worth of assets.
Detective Inspector Lynden James, from the NWROCU's Regional Economic Crime Unit, said: "The order made by the court today ensures Reid will be stripped of the profit that he made from his crimes.
"I hope this sends a loud message to criminals that we will come after you, our investigations don't stop at conviction.
"We will do everything in our power under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) to recover the benefit criminals receive from their illegal activity, to claim back the money that was never rightfully theirs.”
Salami, who is a full-time mother to two of Reid's children, admitted knowing the code for the safe on the day of the raid on March 22, 2019.
As well as using Salami’s home for parcel delivery, Reid also used the homes of two previous girlfriends for such deliveries.
The drugs found at the raid included a kilo of ecstasy tablets, £7,500 worth of flowering cannabis heads, two and a half kilos of MDMA powder, cocaine and ketamine.
In Reid’s Audi outside the house, police found a parcel label was addressed to another of Reid’s former partner’s with whom he has a 13-year-old son.
The label was from a parcel successfully delivered to her city centre home and five other parcels containing benzocaine had been previously intercepted.
Jailing Reid for 12 years, Judge Brian Cummings, QC, said: “You are a man of intelligence and ability and you chose to devote those attributes to crime.”
“You used Salami’s home as centre of the operation, storing during there and using the premises for the preparation and distribution of drug deals of various weights and value to various customers.
“You used the dark web and crypto currency as an untraceable way of handing the financial side of the business.
Defence barrister, Melanie Simpson, said that Salami had not become involved until after her former partner had died.
She was highly vulnerable after becoming pregnant with Reid’s baby and he moved in full time in March last year and she suffered domestic abuse at his hands.
