A gang of illegal online pharmacists who raked in £4.3 million selling counterfeit drugs on the Dark Web have been jailed.
Osvaldas Novikovas, 32, Jordanas Avizienius, 27, Javed Afzal Khan, 55, and Marius Sutrinavicius, 44, operated SocialPharma, selling pills and powders online and through the encrypted Telegram messaging service.
Police said £4.3 million in BitCoin had been made by the men since they established the illicit service in 2018.
At Kingston Crown Court on Friday, Novikovas, the group’s ringleader, was jailed for 13 and a half years and his right hand man Avizienius was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison.
Sutrinavicius was jailed for eight years and three months, and Khan, who supplied drugs to be sold online, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“Buying drugs from dark net markets is inherently dangerous”, said Detective Inspector Rob Bryant, the senior investigator for the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit cyber team which smashed the gang.
“Customers have no idea what they are purchasing, and these products are sold without consultation with a GP, without prescription, and without any assurance of authenticity.
“The impact of illicit pharmaceuticals should not be underestimated. Heroin seized during this investigation was found to contain traces of fentanyl, a substance 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. Even a tiny amount can cause a fatal overdose.
“The dangers of counterfeit tablets cannot be understated. Their composition is unknown, and the effects on vulnerable people could be devastating.
“Without police intervention, this group would have undoubtedly continued to supply significant quantities of illicit products across the country. These individuals showed no remorse for their crimes, and I am pleased that they have now been brought before the courts and imprisoned.”
Police said Avizienius was in charge of overseeing sales and managing Dark Web channels, and he had boasted in messages of laundering £2.5 million through his own bank account.
Sutrinavicius ran the operation of packing and sending out the drugs, while Khan was the supplier.
In July, Novikovas and Avizienius, both of Chipstead Way in Banstead, Surrey, and Sutrinavicius, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs, admitting their involvement in the supply of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and ketamine.
Avizienius also pleaded guilty to money laundering.
Khan, of Millais Road, Leyton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A and class C pharmaceutical drugs, and was found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, and ketamine.
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