The drugs were worth a quarter of a million pounds.
A ‘respected’ doctor who sold more than £250,000 worth of drugs on the dark web using a Star Wars alter-ego has been jailed for five years.
Shoaib Ahmad sold ecstasy, cannabis and fake Xanax online with Bitcoin cryptocurrency under the name of ‘Imperial Storm Trooper’, or IST.
The 41-year-old was caught after police intercepted a package containing drugs addressed to a rented mailbox in Birmingham in early 2017.
The box was leased under another name but had been paid for using Ahmad’s bank account. It was one of many he hired out using different names.
He would receive his drug shipments in the mailboxes before selling them on to others.
Ahmad was also linked to another drug dealer Marc Ward, of Portsmouth, who was arrested by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit in June 2017.
Ward was part of a drugs gang who also dealt under different pseudonyms on various marketplaces on the dark web.
He posted online that he was planning to ‘retire’ from dealing on one of the sites, and said ‘Imperial Storm Trooper’ was one of several suppliers taking over his trade of counterfeit Xanax.
Only available on prescription in the UK, Xanax is used to treat anxiety and panic disorders but is often abused for its sedative effects.
Following Ward’s arrest, Ahmad travelled to France in August 2017, crossing into Belgium to the Netherlands.
On his return to France, he was searched by French border officers who found him carrying 46kg of ecstasy tablets with a street value of just over 615,000 euros.
Ahmad was arrested, charged and sentenced to six years in prison in France.
The French authorities contacted West Midlands Police who searched his home in Halesowen, West Midlands, as part of the ongoing investigation.
Officers found a variety of drugs along with digital devices, which revealed Ahmad’s link to the Imperial Storm Trooper profile and his illegal online drug deals.
Ahmad was extradited from France to the UK in July 2021 and was placed on remand awaiting trial.
He pleaded guilty to 17 offences relating to possession and intent to supply controlled substances on June 28 this year.
He was jailed for five years last Monday at Birmingham Crown Court.
Sentencing the judge told Ahmad he would have received a heavier sentence had he not already spent time in prison in France.
Detective Constable Holly Percival, from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit’s cyber-crime team, said: ‘To the outside world Shoaib Ahmad was a respected professional and very far from most people’s idea of a drug dealer.
‘Behind the scenes however, within the secretive community operating on the dark web, he was heavily involved in selling illegal drugs.
‘As a registered medical practitioner, Ahmad knew well the dangers these drugs posed but he had little regard for others, only for his own profit.
‘He also thought he was beyond our reach, acting under the cloak of anonymity on the dark web, but we are as relentless in our pursuit of those who carry out crimes in cyberspace as we are tackling those who offend on the streets.
‘We have the technical expertise and resource to take on these criminals and we are determined to disrupt the drug trades wherever it takes place.
‘Ahmad’s capture is testament to our resolve.’
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