Attempted Grenade Buyer Gets 10 Years in Prison

After an investigation by the NCA and Organised Crime Partnership, authorities arrested a suspect for an attempted grenade purchase. The suspect, a 22-year-old man, pleaded guilty to an attempted grenade purchase. He paid a darknet vendor for a fully functioning grenade, the OCP said.

A judge recently sentenced the 22-year-old Luis McMullan to 10 years in prison for his crimes. McMullan pleaded guilty to the importation of said grenade and guilty to the possession of firearms and ammunition. He additionally pleaded guilty to the possession of class A substances with intent to supply.

“Luis McMullan intended to buy a fully functioning hand grenade online and whilst it’s not clear what his motivations were, this is an extremely dangerous weapon that has the potential to cause serious damage,” Spencer Barnett of the OCP said. Like many agencies, the OCP and NCA placed a special focus on darknet weapon importation.

Barnett added, “[w]e are actively targeting those who believe they can use the dark web to buy and sell illicit goods and continue to work with our law enforcement partners to disrupt the flow of illegal firearms into the UK.”

During the raid of McMullan’s home—where officers arrested him before he obtained any grenades—the officers found drugs and several weapons. Notably, no grenades. However, they did locate several “pen guns” that fully resembled regular ink pens. Presumably meant for the pen guns, McMullan also possessed 20 unfired rounds of an unspecified caliber of hollow point ammunition.

The also found knives and “knuckle dusters,” amongst various other, unspecified​ weaponry. (Knuckle dusters are also known as brass knuckles, knuckle busters, etc.) Authorities said that his motivation for the grenade purchase was unknown. Same goes for the collection of weaponry at his house.

And, as for the drug charges: the officers found a box that contained “small bag of MDMA” and a separately identified container of 78 MDMA pills. Investigators found the drugs, weapons, and ammunition after the raid on his house in Tufnell Park, London, on November 29, 2016.

McMullan pleaded guilty on May 17, 2017 and received a 10 year term of imprisonment the next day.

Authorities arrested a 21-year-old (attempted) grenade buyer in February 2017. They, after the arrest, announced that law enforcement watched his darknet activities for as many as three weeks before the arrest. Also that “‘he was ‘under the delusion’ that he was completely anonymous while using the deep web.”