D Walden 
Updated September 5th, 2022
A Rose Bay man charged with running a dark web business that sold $7 million worth of cocaine, MDMA and prescription drugs in 60,000 different transactions will remain on bail until at least October, after police hit both him and his brother with a raft of new charges.
Brothers Alexander Busse, 39, of Rose Bay, and Ioan Busu, 33, of Chatswood, were arrested in May this year, the culmination of a two-year investigation by NSW Police’s cybercrime squad into a dark web business named Aussiepillimporter.
During the arrests, police seized almost $60,000 in cash, a ring worth $100,000 and drugs, including about 17 kilograms of tetrahydrocannabinol hidden in lollies, cocaine and MDMA, as well as thousands of tablets and three kilograms of powder.
“All items have since undergone forensic analysis,” police said in a statement.
Police say the brothers allegedly bought large amounts of drugs from wholesalers and sold them in small amounts such as one or two pills or half a gram of cocaine to customers across the country in exchange for bitcoin.
On Wednesday, they were each slapped with a raft of new drug supply charges, including multiple counts of supplying large commercial quantities of drugs.
Both brothers will remain on bail until October, when their matters return to court.
The dark web is a hidden collective of websites typically offering illicit goods or services on which users remain anonymous.
The length of time they had allegedly been selling drugs made the brothers a priority target for police, cybercrime commander Detective Superintendent Matt Craft told the Herald earlier this year.
“It started as we do with any investigation, looking at the individuals and who may be involved and working backwards from there,” he said.
Like most vendors on the dark web, who depend on positive reviews to generate new business, the brothers’ alleged operations were highly professional.
“Your reputation is everything,” Craft said.
The NSW Crime Commission has also begun proceedings to confiscate Busse’s assets.
“If you look at what we’ve been able to seize in terms of property, it’s been millions of dollars that we would allege would be obtained as a consequence of criminal behaviour,” Craft said.
