Gardener who was Arrested after ‘Party Drugs’ he Ordered on Darknet were Intercepted, Gets Unconditional Bail

A LANDSCAPE gardener was caught out when a package of illegal drugs he’d ordered off the dark web was intercepted by Border Force.

Michael Bose, 33, had ordered a cocktail of drugs from a dark web site that advertised them as being distributed from the UK.

That marketing turned out to be a lie, however. Border Force officers intercepted a parcel containing around 29g of fluoromethcathinone – a former legal high, now banned – as it came off a plane in February last year. The drugs were apparently wrapped in flamingo-covered paper and placed in a padded envelope.

The discovery prompted Wiltshire Police to search Bose’s home in Swindon later that month. They found small quantities of “party drugs” LSD, ketamine, methamphetamine, dimethyltryptamine, MDMA, Etizolam and 2CB. 

Mark Glendenning, mitigating, said his client had been going through a difficult time personally at the start of last year. “He has decided that he’d buy some ecstasy tablets; rather than go to a street dealer he has decided he’d buy them over the internet.” 

Bose logged onto the dark web, part of the internet only accessible via specific search engines, but found it was “something of a supermarket” and added various items to his order.

The site he bought from claimed to distribute its products from the UK, thereby avoiding the risk of the items being intercepted at the border. That proved to be a false claim, with Mr Glendenning questioning how much reliance could be placed on dark web sites being “commercially sound”. 

His client was not a habitual drug user and, since the offences were committed, had approached his GP for support with depression and anxiety, Mr Glendenning said. The drugs had all been for his personal use. 

The court heard Bose, a landscape gardener with his own business, had no previous convictions although he had some old cautions for drug possession.

Appearing before Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, Bose, of Carmel Walk, Park North, pleaded guilty to importing a class B drug with intent to evade a prohibition and possession of class A, B and C drugs. 

He was granted unconditional bail to be sentenced on May 11. Magistrates ordered a pre-sentence report.