Update In Swedish Vendor Case: One Of The Suspects Confessed

Earlier this week, four men were detained in Halmstad, Sweden, who are suspected of running a vendor shop on the dark web. Now, one of the accused persons confessed.

According to official documents at the Halmstad District Court, the four suspects were selling narcotics on the dark web. They are charged with aggravated drug trafficking and serious drug offenses. The vendor group ordered (possibly from the dark web) bulk quantities of narcotics and resold them on dark net marketplaces for profits. The suspects allegedly sold substances to around 20 customers, police says. They accepted bitcoins and shipped the narcotics in vacuum sealed packages using the national postal system.

Law enforcement authorities were already ahead of the vendor group. As they caught the trail, they started investigating them. Authorities managed to intercept some of the parcels the vendors sent to their customers containing narcotics. The seized packages are considered as part of the evidence in the trial.

Police immediately detained two of the suspects after they picked up a package containing five kilograms of amphetamines from a postal delivery point in Åled, a municipality outside Halmstad.

All of the defendants denied the allegations against them. However, one of the suspects admitted that he picked up the narcotics from the postal delivery point on the behalf of another person. The accused person also added that he did not know that the amount of drugs in the package was so much and that there were substances other than amphetamines in the parcel.

Swedish news outlet, sverigesradio.se, conducted a brief interview with Charlotte Österlund, the prosecutor in the case.

“It started with reconnaissance and then after they were arrested, we have interrogated them,” the prosecutor said.

Österlund, when asked about the “evidence situation”, she said that she believes there is enough evidence in the case.

“This is new information for us, but it changes nothing for us”, the prosecutor said regarding the confession of one of the suspects.

The trial is expected to be continued on February 17.

In January, the Skaraborg District Court sentenced three suspects who were charged with drug trafficking. According to the officials, the accused persons ran Sweden’s largest vendor shop selling narcotics on the dark web. Sofia Karlsson, the chief prosecutor in the case, requested 14 years in prison for the two primary suspects. Chief Inspector Lars Johannson similarly opted for the same punishment. However, the judge sentenced both primary suspects, a 30 and a 35-year-old man, to eight years and six months in prison.

“In a similar case, the Court of Appeals sentenced two drug dealers to six and ten years,” Johannson told the media. “This [case] should have an even higher penalty given how extensive their trade was. Though of course, it is the district court’s discretion.”

The girlfriend of one of the primary suspects was also sentenced. She only appeared in connection with the group rarely and received lesser charges. For only “complicity in the narcotics crimes,” the judge sentenced the woman to one year in jail. The fourth member of the group avoided this sentencing—his court date remains unannounced.