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'Naive' drug trafficker used own name on website now shut down by FBI, Adelaide court hears

By court reporter James Hancock
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drugs
LSD(Supplied: NSW Police)

A young Adelaide drug trafficker was "naive" enough to use his own name on a buy-and-sell website that since has been shut down by the FBI, a court has heard.

Ryan James Norman, 21, imported drugs from Canada, including LSD, via the website Silk Road 2.0.

It let people anonymously buy and sell illegal drugs until the FBI arrested its operator last November.

The Adelaide District Court was told Norman also imported N-Bombs, which had a hallucinogenic effect similar to LSD, and were the cause of several deaths overseas.

N-Bombs were first found in circulation in South Australia in 2012.

Norman also had ecstasy, and steroids for personal use.

He pleaded guilty to seven drugs charges, including trafficking in a commercial quantity of a controlled drug, and the maximum penalty he could face is life in prison.

Norman's lawyer Craig Caldicott said his client was a smart young man who was naive when he used his own name on the black market site and express post to send drugs interstate.

He said Norman had "lost his way" and was trafficking to support his own drug habit.

"[He is] a young man who has stuffed up monumentally and is now paying for that," the lawyer said.

"There's no suggestion of any drug use now, he has cleaned his act up completely. He has taken no drugs since the night of his arrest."

Mr Caldicott said Norman was active on the now-removed website for about two months.

After the sentencing submissions, the court revoked the young man's bail and he was taken into custody ahead of sentencing on a date to be fixed.

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