'Johnny Alpha' Jailed

A drug dealer who sold cannabis and magic mushrooms on the dark web has been jailed for two years.

Cei William Owens, 29, admitted using Silk Road 2.0 to supply class A and B drugs, and also pleaded guilty to three counts of possession.

Owens used the online pseudonym "Johnny Alpha", Swansea Crown Court heard, and carried out drug deals using virtual currency Bitcoin.

He advertised "quality hash" and ran an "organised and sophisticated" free next-day delivery service using first class registered post.

He was arrested with six other Britons by the National Crime Agency (NCA) last year, as part of a co-ordinated international sting.

Police found drugs and digital scales at his home in north Wales, as well as encryption software installed on his computer.

A defence plea for a suspended sentence was ignored by Recorder Ian Murphy QC, who said he had no choice but to hand down an immediate prison term.

He said: "The nature of your operation was both sophisticated and very well organised.

"Photographic exhibits show that a room in your house had been turned into a distribution centre and you had numerous customer feedback on your dark web profile.

"You even boasted that you would not sell anything that you would not take yourself.

"However, you did not know and did not care who you were selling to - they may have been children or vulnerable people."

Police found stamps from Holland and Canada, but the defendant claimed he only posted drugs to UK addresses.

Paul Hobson, defending, said Owens had an "unorthodox upbringing" where drug taking "was the norm" in his family home.

Online black market Silk Road was launched in 2011 and led to more than $200m (£129m) of online drug sales.

The FBI later took down the site but a second one called Silk Road 2.0 was quickly launched.

NCA area commander Peter Smith said: "The realisation that you can be tracked and identified on the dark web is beginning to sink in for online criminals.

"Selling drugs this way is just like any other organised crime network - it takes time and effort to investigate and build a criminal case, but we are determined and will continue to prosecute people who deal drugs and commit serious crime using the dark web."

A Proceeds of Crime Act investigation is under way into how much money Owens made during his 11-month operation.