A DARK web criminal who turned a York house into the nerve centre of a massive international drug smuggling and supply operation has been jailed for more than 13 years.

Ross Brennan “plumbed the darkest depths” of the internet to bring Class A drugs into the UK and sell them on, including fentanyl,  a lethal drug which police estimate was up to 100 times more powerful than heroin, York Crown Court heard.

Matthew Bean, prosecuting, said the 28-year-old graduate continued to operate his illegal business despite police questioning and arresting him six times, and despite knowing that people died from taking one of the drugs he was peddling.

Brennan told a mate over the internet: “I have blood on me. I know there are bodies out there on me. If you do thousands and thousands you cannot help but f….. up one day.”

Three of his “customers” died from drug-related deaths, though the prosecution cannot prove he directly caused their deaths.

Detectives cannot say exactly how much profit he made, but Brennan  received bitcoins worth up to £1.5 million between November 15, 2015, and September 28, 2016, said Mr Bean. He spent some of it on hotels and prostitutes. 

Police found drugs worth up to £35,000 on the streets when they searched his home in Carrnock Close, Huntington, for four days from September 8 to 11, 2016. 

Other items found there and in a Huddersfield flat used by him included a book called Chemistry for Dummies, mobile phones, laptops, labels, bags of cutting powder, a mixing machine, a microscope, a set of scales and a number of packages from around the world.

Jailing him for 13 years and eight months, Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said: “You are a 21st century criminal.  You are sophisticated, arrogant and sure in the belief you are untouchable.   "The law enforcement authorities you believed were ill equipped to deal with you. You believed you were always in a position to better them.

“You shielded yourself with your computer and your keyboard and isolated yourself from the terrible damage your crimes were causing in the real world.

“The bitter truth is your computer based activities have caused real lasting harm in the outside world."

Brennan had exploited Aaron Gledhill, 30, whom he knew was vulnerable, and involved him in the drug operation.

Brennan and Gledhill, formerly of Huddersfield, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and money laundering. Brennan also admitted four charges of possession and distribution of indecent images of children through the internet.  They met at university.

The judge had earlier said: “It is sad an invention that has the power for such good is exploited by those with criminal intent to do such harm.

“Ross Brennan plumbed its darkest depths to set up a highly successful importation and supply of drugs, hide the proceeds of those and used it to satisfy his devious sexual desires.”

Gledhill was jailed for three years and nine months. Both men were made subject to a serious crime prevention order to run for five years after they are released on parole, which restricts their access to any communication device including mobile phones and computers and bans them from associating with each other.  Brennan must also register as a sex offender for ten years.

For Brennan,  Chloe Fairley said he had mental health difficulties and had used his crimes to fund his own large drug addiction.

For Gledhill, Neal Kutte said he had neurological problems caused by a serious motorcycle crash that made him easy to exploit.

Outside court, Det Supt Steve Thomas, North Yorkshire Police’s head of crime operation, said fentanyl was so dangerous a single granule could kill.

“Organised drug dealing, sadly, is not a new problem but the importation and distribution of such a variety of drugs including fentanyl and crystal meth was on a scale North Yorkshire Police hadn’t seen before,” he said.

“The case we heard today shows an emerging pattern of criminals moving online and using digital technology and currency to offend. It also shows how law enforcement has developed the skills and techniques to tackle it head on.

“North Yorkshire Police, working with its partners, infiltrated this operation and used advanced methods to decrypt messages and transactions, evidencing the use of dark-web markets and bitcoin currency.

“Today’s result has only been possible thanks to the skills of our detectives, investigators, digital forensic experts and others who have worked tirelessly to bring Brennan and Gledhill to justice and protect the wider public.

“In doing so, we’ve also brought down a sizable drug supply chain that could have harmed or even killed any one of the thousands of people who bought substances from it.”

It took hundreds of officers and staff of North Yorkshire Police, the National Crime Agency and other police forces to bring the pair to justice.

After the court case, North Yorkshire Police revealed more details of Brennan's operation, which he began in November 2013. 

He set up an “online supermarket” on the dark web to advertise the wares and receive "service reviews" from his thousands of customers who paid in bitcoins and used encryption software to hide his transactions.

Between June and September 2015 alone, Brennan conducted 225 separate transactions online using a dark web site called AlphaBay, which has since been shut down.

He told an acquaintance he was selling hundreds of bags of drugs “in his sleep”.

He researched drugs on the internet and had powders at his home which he mixed or "cut" with the imported drugs before selling them on. 

He received bitcoins worth a total of between £275,000 and £1.5million with an average value during the operation of around £450,000. He spent it on hotels, prostitutes and lavish living.

He got drugs posted to him or Gledhill from Vietnam, the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ukraine, Poland and Mexico.

He researched drugs on the internet and had powders at his home which he mixed or "cut" with the imported drugs before selling them on. 

When computer experts examined Brennan's laptop, they found he had been sending indecent images of children via chatlines to other people with whom he discussed what he wanted to do with the youngsters in the photos.