Kilograms of narcotics were ordered from the dark web

Nikita Rutkevich (27), a resident of Tallinn, is an enterprising man. Being more competent about computers and the web than regular users, he discovered a simple way of making money. All it required was starting capital, crypto-currency and knowledge about how to find drugs traders on the dark web. Although the Internet is full of frauds, the dark web has its own rules and after contacting the right dealer, receiving the narcotics is merely a technical matter.

The Estonian police was tipped off by its Europol colleagues that a dark web user nicknamed “bloodfilament” has ordered a large quantity of narcotics to Estonia from Europe. The crypto-currency wallet of the dark web user operating under that nickname belongs to the Estonian citizen Nikita Rutkevich and it had been constantly logged in during the past half-year from an IP address in Tallinn. The European colleagues informed the Estonian police that “bloodfilament” had ordered narcotics from the dark web for the Lithuanian citizen Edmas Izhganaitis (26) who resided in the Lasnamäe district of Tallinn.

The police placed both men under surveillance. A carton weighing 1.8 kilograms soon arrived in Tallinn addressed to Izhganaitis. The checking initially revealed two micro-USB cables packed in bubble wrap. Under the bubble wrap, however, there were three silver vacuum packs with two smaller containing trefoil-shaped tablets of ecstasy and the third one moist white power which turned out to be amphetamine. The investigators closed the package and allowed the courier firm to deliver as if nothing had happened. The narcotics service officers of the Tax and Customs Board observed the next day how the Itella SmartPost courier delivered the package to Lasnamäe. It was received by Izhganaitis’ younger brother.

Covert surveillance of Rutkevich and Izhganaitis showed that the men were running an active narcotics business. Within two months, Rutkevich ordered narcotics from the dark web platform Versus Market to Estonia on eight occasions, paying 9,001 euros in bitcoins. If they hadn’t been arrested, the profit would have been four or five times higher.

Izhganaitis’ role was receiving and storing of the packages arriving in Estonia. Besides their own addresses, Rutkevich and Izhganaitis also made us of their unsuspecting neighbors and relatives, asking them to hand over the received packages. They explained the use of another address by claiming that ordering goods over the web on the same address repeatedly would result in additional fee. The neighbors believed it.

Izhganaitis’ brother who received the narcotics from the courier also claimed to have been unaware of narcotics business and he was not charged with drugs trade.

Edmas Izhganaitis also helped to store the drugs. The largest amount was hidden in a garage in Võidujooksu Street which was rented by a female acquaintance. According to their agreement, Edmas could use the unit and the woman was unaware of the drugs business. Edmas also kept small amounts before delivering to the clients in his cellar unit he had rented together with the apartment.

Although the men handled narcotics with large street value, the investigation showed that Edmas Izhganaitis was actually quite poor. He worked as a welder and earned less than 900 euros per month. The 550-euro rent for the Lasnamäe apartment was too high for him. Rutkevich promised to pay half of the rent in exchange for his involvement. Izhganaitis told the investigators that Rutkevich failed to keep even that promise and that he had frequent rows with his partner over money shortage. Rutkevich once paid 180 euros for the repair of his computer. But that was all.

“Sometimes sister gave me money for cigarettes,” he said.

The investigators decided in November that the covers surveillance had gathered enough evidence against the men and they were detained as suspects in drugs offence on November 20- All three decided to cooperate with the investigation and regretted their actions.

In the end of April the Harju County Court found them guilty of narcotics business according to plea bargain. Rutkevich as the initiator and mastermind of the business received the toughest punishment He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison plus the suspended sentence for his previous drugs offence. He will spend the next seven years behind bars.

Izhganaitis received a five-year sentence out of which he had to spend six months in jail.

Nikitin received a four-year sentence and was jailed for five months.