A UK man, Paul Johnson, was sentenced to eight years in jail in the UK for operating a darknet drug trafficking business from the attic of his home. In order to obfuscate what he was doing, he set up a company called “Labrador Tea Company” and used it to buy illegal drugs from Canadians in Canada, which he paid for in Bitcoin, and had it sent to the UK, where he re-sold them to others on the darknet, accepting payments in Bitcoin.
Johnson bought ecstasy, cocaine, LSD, heroic, cannabis and other illegal drugs under Labrador Tea Company to try to dupe postal inspectors that he was importing tea from Canada. Primarily, he imported cannabis and LSD.
He amassed a fortune of $2.4 million and used the proceeds of crime to buy a house with cash, and several cars. His neighbors believed he worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken and was able to afford a house and several cars from his job frying chicken at KFC.
The police raided his house in 2017 and seized a wide range of drugs, including heroin and LSD and over $400,000 in Bitcoin at a digital currency exchange.
In order to hide the nature of the drug business, Johnson used several post office boxes at malls and store fronts that rent postal boxes, to receive illegal drugs from Canada. He paid over $40,000 in fees for several postal boxes for the drug operation. He also had two places he paid rent for, one of which was empty, to have an address to receive material – having two residences, one of which is empty, is a common typology for money laundering.
Johnson also bought drugs online from Spain.
We don’t know what digital currency exchange Johnson used, who sold him the drugs on the darknet from Canada, what digital currency exchange the drug seller from Canada used, or Johnson’s darknet handle name.