A software programmer has been found guilty of attempting to buy a deadly poison from an online back market, after he was inspired by the hit US television series Breaking Bad.
Mohammed Ali, 31, hid behind the username Weirdos0000 to buy 500mg of ricin for $500 – enough to kill 1,400 people – from a dealer on the Dark Web the Old Bailey heard.
Unbeknown to Ali, the dealer was in fact an FBI agent posing under the username Psychochem. The agent tipped off police in England, and instead sent the father-of-two a harmless powder.
Police swooped on Ali at his home on Prescot Road, Liverpool, when he accepted the delivery of a toy car with five vials hidden in the battery compartment.
Ali initially searched for poisons including abrin, ricin and cyanide in October 2014, and waited until January 2015 to approached a Dark Web user he believed could act as a supplier.
"Hi, would you be able to make me some ricin and send it to the UK?" he asked Psychochem in an online message.
The judge ordered a psychiatric report as he adjourned sentencing to 18 September.
More to follow
