South Coast sisters Shanese and Patricia Koullias admitted being part of a $17 million dark web drug syndicate at Nowra Local Court on Tuesday, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Cody Ronald Ward, known as dark web vendor ‘NSWGreat’, as well as the Greek Australian sisters, admitted to their roles in a sophisticated network that sold large amounts of MDMA, LSD, amphetamine and other drugs on the dark web.
Ward, mastermind of the syndicate, pleaded guilty to three counts of importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and three counts of supplying a prohibited drug greater than a commercial quantity.
The 26-year-old pleaded guilty to importing 1651.99g of MDMA, 1916.5g of amphetamine and 88.308 tabs of LSD between 2018 and 2019. A number of packages were intercepted by Australian Border Force and NSW Police.
Shanese Koullias, 24, pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying a prohibited drug greater than a large commercial quantity.
Patricia Koullias, 22, pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying a prohibited drug greater than an indictable amount and participating in a criminal group contributing to criminal activity.
From December 2015 to January 2019 Ward had conducted 10,500 successful transactions, documents said. Documents also referred to an interview he had where he was reported as the “most successful and longest-running dark web illicit drug vendor operating in Australia”.
Shanese Koullias would store and package orders at a Callala Bay home and deliver orders through Australia Post, the court heard.
In an electronic interview Patricia Koullias, who was arrested at a Quakers Hill residence, stated she was paid about $100 per hour to package LSD tabs and $100 to drop off parcels. She stated she started around Christmas 2018 and would work in the syndicate one to two days a week.
The trios cases were adjourned to be mentioned at the District Court in Nowra on August 10.
