British men admit posting deadly fentanyl around the world after dark web business exposed
One member of trio was put in coma by exposure to drug but recovered to continue dealing
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Three men who ran a dark web drugs business face jail after admitting posting deadly fentanyl around the world.
Jake Levene, 22, Lee Childs, 45, and Mandy Christopher Lowther, 21, ran their “UKBargins” [sic] page during a spike in global deaths caused by the deadly opioid.
As well as fentanyl, which is estimated to be up to 50 times stronger than heroin, the gang offered buyers its even more potent analogue carfentanyl. Both drugs have been linked to at least 125 deaths in the UK in under 18 months.
Lowther was put into a coma by exposure to the drug earlier last year, but recovered to continue the lucrative online trade with his conspirators.
They made almost £165,000 in just five months from December 2016 by mixing the drugs with bulking agents and sending them to customers in the UK, US, Germany, Norway, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Canada, France, Singapore, Holland and Spain.
The UKBargins gang sold 2,853 items to 443 people worldwide, including 172 in Britain, during the period.
Six of their customers are known to have died from fentanyl-related deaths, although investigators said they could not be certain that the fatal dose in each case had been supplied by Levene, Childs and Lowther.
The trio ran their operation from an industrial unit in Morley, Leeds, where police later uncovered fentanyl, containers of chemicals, funnels, mixing bowls, scales and other equipment.
Officers also discovered 677g of pure carfentanyl, which equates to millions of lethal doses.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Levene, of Turner Close in Wakefield, controlled the unit with Lowther, of Cottingley Springs in Morley, while Childs, of Bedale Court in Morley, was responsible for packaging and posting the drugs to customers.
He was captured on CCTV sending hundreds of drug packages from a local post office.
Levene and Childs previously admitted exporting and supplying class A drugs and Lowther admitted the same charges on Tuesday at Leeds Crown Court. All three defendants will return to the same court for sentencing on 7 September.
The trio were arrested in April 2017 after NCA officers and West Yorkshire Police raided their drugs facility, finding heavy duty gloves and two respirator masks.
The protective equipment was worn by the men to protect themselves while mixing and packaging the drugs, but Lowther was put in a coma by exposure to fentanyl in February 2017.
He was admitted to intensive care in Leeds and diagnosed with a hypoxic brain injury, but recovered and continued drug dealing.
A laptop in the unit showed the UKBargins site within AlphaBay dark web market, which was shut down in an international operation involving the NCA last July.
AlphaBay was known for selling drugs, weapons and illegal goods and services to buyers using the anonymous Tor network in an attempt to disguise their identity and location.
Their website ran the message: “Welcome to UKBargins. Our products & their purity: Carfentanil – 99%. Butyr-Fenanyl – 98%. Furanyl-Fentanyl – 98%. 4-Fluroisobutyrfentanyl – 98%. U-47700 – 99%. We also have a Fentanyl HCL /// Manitol Mix & Furanyl-Fentany/// Mannitol Mix.
“I WILL NOT GIVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT FENTANYL OR ITS ANALOGUES AS THE CUSTOMER SHOULD ALREADY OF RESERACHED THESE CHEMICALS BEFORE EVEN CONTEMPLATING USING THEM AS THEY ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS & LETHAL IN THE WRONG HANDS”.
Among the evidence against the dealers was a to-do list in Levene’s car which reminded him to “find new CF supplier”, while text messages showed him and Lowther arguing about the workload of packaging up drugs.
Greg McKenna, regional head of investigations at the NCA, said: “This operation has resulted in the closure of an organised crime group sending horrifically dangerous drugs across the world, and the jailing of the men behind it.
“They knew exactly how lethal the drugs were but continued to sell them.
“We have taken out a main supplier but the threat from synthetic opioids remains and we will continue to respond to this UK-wide threat with our law enforcement partners.”
Detective Superintendent Pat Twiggs, of West Yorkshire Police, said the force was working with partners to prevent further harm to drug users.
“That work coupled with a variety of law enforcement activity has greatly reduced the fatalities we are seeing linked to these drugs,” he added.
“But the problem is still very real and we need the community to come forward with information to help us. If we know about it we will take action.”
Authorities have been intensifying operations against the fentanyl trade in the wake of a series of global deaths among users either taking the drug deliberately, or unwittingly after it is mixed with heroin.
In February, Newport-based dark web dealer Kyle Enos was jailed for eight years for supplying fentanyl and last year two men were for conspiring to import the class A drugs.
Earlier this month, the Global Drug Survey revealed that the UK is among the world's biggest buyers of drugs on the dark web, where illicit trade continues to grow.
As little as 0.002g of fentanyl, which has a legitimate medical use as a painkiller, is fatal and it has a number of analogues with varying potency.
Carfentanyl can be lethal in a dosage of 0.00002g, the equivalent of a few grains within a typical heroin deal, and is not intended for human use.
Illicit supply from Chinese manufacturers and distributors constitutes a prime source for both synthetic opioids and the precursor chemicals used to manufacture them, although blending is difficult and dangerous.
Most fentanyl-related deaths in the UK occurred before mid-2017 and were concentrated in Yorkshire and the Humber, but 31 police forces have reported fatalities.