Officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary and Sussex Police, coordinated by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, raided three addresses on the morning of 22 December 2003 and arrested a 37-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman from Wheathampstead and a 35-year-old man from Brighton.[1] The three were suspected of running password-protected websites whose customers placed drug orders that were then dispatched by post.[1] Police seized drug-dealing evidence and four computers, and froze the suspects’ bank accounts.[1]
Britain’s first online drug case
Investigating officer Matt Cornish said the inquiry was the first case of its kind in the country, and that the team had been amazed by the volume of orders placed through the sites.[1] The investigation had begun in 2002, when banks alerted the constabulary to unusual transfers of large sums of money.[2] Jackson was making hundreds of pounds a day selling to hundreds of people through sites including Budmonkey.com and Keepit2urself.com, working with a stash of envelopes, address labels and a heat-sealing machine and withdrawing large sums at cash points.[2] The Register put the trade at almost £500,000 worth of cannabis.[1]
On 29 April 2005, Hove Crown Court sentenced Sean Jackson, 37, to five years for cannabis supply plus two years for concealing the proceeds, Mark Harris, 41, to three and a half years plus twelve months, and Dominic Bolongaro, 32, to eighteen months.[2] Lisa Wilkinson, 35, and David Harris, 40, each received 200 hours of community service for concealing the proceeds.[2] The court ordered Jackson to repay £112,000 within six months under the Proceeds of Crime Act and left a hearing on Harris’s assets for later.[2]
