Man faces jail after 2700 drug tablets on notorious site Silk Road
A MAN who bought tens of thousands of dollars of drugs through notorious website Silk Road faces up to 25 years in jail.
A MAN who bought tens of thousands of dollars of drugs through a notorious website faces up to 25 years in jail.
Luke James Hanley, 20, of Daisy Hill, ordered the LCD-substitute tablets from underground website Silk Road just months before it was closed down late last year.
Known among its users as the Amazon or eBay of illegal drugs, Hanley ordered 2700 of the tablets to be delivered to his Melton West home under a false name.
The Victorian County Court heard the drugs, valued at about $20,000 on the street, were intercepted by customs officials at Melbourne Airport.
A search of Hanley's premises later found the drugs in his wardrobe along with false documents he used to open dodgy bank accounts three years earlier.
Just under five grams of amphetamines were also mailed to Hanley via a false name in Sydney, but he never took delivery.
Hanley pleaded guilty to a rolled-up charge of importing marketable quantities of amphetamines and the LSD substitute and two other charges of making false documents.
The court heard Hanley was just 15 when he opened his first dodgy bank account using falsified documents, which were later discovered by the bank's security experts.
His mother, Julie Gilbertson, told the court her son had never been in trouble with the law and had been encouraged to participate in the importation by her estranged partner.
The court heard Hanley's biological father had spent five years in jail for armed robbery and had only recently resumed contact with his son when the purchase was made.
Text messages read to the court captured the pair talking about the delivery of pills, but he has not been charged.
Mrs Gilbertson, who remarried several years ago, said she begged her son to come and stay with them at their farm, but he refused until it was too late.
``It's been a huge wake-up call. He's extremely frightened,'' she told the court.
Judge Frank Gucciardo was critical of Hanley's behaviour and said there was evidence to suggest he'd done a certain amount of planning.
``This isn't just `let me order something over the internet and see what happens','' he said.
Hanley will be sentenced on Friday.