Bikies looking to dark net and Australia Post to deliver drugs

Outlaw bikie groups are trying to use a young “super cyber hacker” to help them sell drugs throughout Australia. Here’s how they’ll do it.

Outlaw bikie groups are looking to switch national drugs movements to Australia Post as they seek to diversify their operations and create their own dark web Silk Road route into Australia.

And police intelligence has uncovered a prison plot by jailed Comanchero members to target a young cyber genius currently behind bars, to help the motorcycle group learn how to do it.

Cyber hacker Cody Ronald Ward was outed as Australia’s biggest dark web drug dealer in 2019 after spending years evading Australian police, Interpol, the FBI and US Department of Homeland Security.

The 25-year-old Cody Ward, dubbed the baby-faced hacker, is the alleged mastermind behind a multi-million dollar dark web drug syndicate. Picture: Instagram

Ward was a cyber super hacker sending taunts to authorities, including the Australian Signals Directorate and AFP. Later he established himself as a one-man encrypted dark web drug dealing entity, buying and selling at least $17 million worth of cocaine, ecstasy and ice online and using Australia Post to unwittingly deliver to customers through a sophisticated dupe.

The 25-year-old from NSW would brag how the dark net, encrypted technology and crypto currency were the new way to move drugs to thousands of customers and launder millions of dollars. He was arrested and jailed for 10 years in 2021.

But his boasts have since attracted the attention of hardened OMCG (Outlaw Motor Cycle Gang) criminals looking to move drugs around Australia and cash out of the country.

Police confirmed bikies, predominantly from NSW and the Gold Coast, were attempting to “buy [Ward] off” in jail to detail his “innovative trade craft”.

Australian Border Force officers check packages from overseas for illegal substances using X-ray at the Australia Post Clyde International Mail Centre in Sydney, where more than 40,000 illegal goods detections are made each year. Picture: Damian Shaw

Police said exploiting air cargo and mail streams and electronic gaming machines to launder money was not new but establishing industrial scale operations through the dark web offered new potential to criminals.

“Types like Mark Buddle (exiled national bikie boss) need goons to move their products (in Australia) but he (Ward) was our Silk Road, the largest singular online dark web entity with a 5-star rating from his enormous customer service base all over Australia,” police said.

“He was good at what he did, very good. If they get hold of the business model, we are definitely going to have a problem. But we’ve learnt from the skill set to develop a counter capability so that we can deal with people like him in the future and we are – but it’s just that it is changing all our work. The gum shoe work has changed.”

NSW Corrective Services declined to comment, saying no individuals’ case could be discussed.

An Australia Post spokesman said the agency was providing active support to law enforcement, including on identifying emerging threats and intelligence.

“Australia Post works closely with law enforcement and government agencies to identify ever-changing supply chain risks and threats, with our people working to develop and strengthen our capabilities to prevent, disrupt and reduce the exploitation of national security and organised crime using our network,” he said.

Originally published as Bikies looking to dark net and Australia Post to deliver drugs