Austrian Man Admits to Selling Drugs After Package Interception

On February 2017, customs officers in Vienna, Austria intercepted an incoming package “filled” with heroin. The package had come from Holland and was addressed to a 24-year-old old in Kirchdorf, Austria. The natural escalation occurred: law enforcement raided the young man’s home. Although the home proved more boring than they had likely hoped.

At the house, they had only found small amounts of heroin—seemingly not quantifiable. “Small amounts of heroin, search poisons and other evidence of heroin trafficking could be found and secured,” the press release explained. Although the suspect volunteered that he had purchased the heroin from darknet markets, that mattered very little at the time. Officials made the decision to let the 24-year-old off the hook and return to ordinary life. His admission of guilt, from February of this year, impacted more recent events, though. And certainly reflected on the February incident as well, in retrospect.

In early August, customs officers in Vienna intercepted, this time, 107 grams of amphetamine. As expected, a near immediate raid occurred and authorities arrested the 24-year-old. They took him in under the suspicion that he had ordered the drugs for resale purposes. Or, at least “part” of the drugs were for sale; he allegedly would have kept some fire personal use. Also, given that he had already told law enforcement officers that he sold amphetamine and heroin, they had probable cause. Again, “various drugs, drugs and evidence of drug trafficking were found and ensured.”

According to the police and possibly even the suspect himself, he paid for his life with drug sales. His “livelihood,” was maintained with drug profits. The releases did not clarify whether or not the accusations were prosecutable charges or mere suspicions. “The 24-year-old used the profit from the sale of drugs to cover his livelihood and to order drugs again on the Darknet,” the publication said.

Regardless, the recent prosecution and sentencing of a 25-year-old drug dealer who sourced his drugs from various darknet markets provided insight into a possible outcomes. Law enforcement knew the 25-year-old had ordered drugs from someone on the internet.

Austrian authorities worked several angles in order to circumvent the internet security algorithms implemented by the suspect. (Tails, Tor, and a VPN?) After that failed to work, law enforcement started busting anyone who had bought from the 25-year-old. They struck gold when they found an informant. He talked and the police listened. The informant painted enough of a picture for the authorities to get a guilty verdict.

The 25-year-old bought MDMA, amphetamines, ketamine, and ecstasy from darknet marketplaces and then sold the drugs in person. “Just days until August, the 25-year-old heard his sentence read aloud before at the Regional Court of Linz: 10 months imprisonment,” we wrote in another article. Unless there are preexisting conditions that the public has not been made aware of, logic dictates that the 24-year-old would serve less time. That also banks on the fact that he does not have more packages in the mail. He was sent to the court in Garsten on August 10, 2017. Officials are now conducting an investigation into the customers.