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Swansea couple Mathew Crawford and Nicole Crawford sentenced over large commercial supply of THC on dark web

How police nabbed a dad and mum cryptocurrency-based dark web drug ring running out of a family home which promised customers vapes and lollies laced with psychoactive drugs via mail order.

Strike Force Alaine detectives arrest Mathew Crawford following an investigation into the criminal syndicate which sold drugs on the dark web. Picture: NSW Police.
Strike Force Alaine detectives arrest Mathew Crawford following an investigation into the criminal syndicate which sold drugs on the dark web. Picture: NSW Police.

It was the mum and dad cryptocurrency dark web drug racket which promised to marry up wannabe THC users with synthetic cannabis via vapes and lollies laced with the psychoactive ingredient.

But when cybercrime squad detectives raided Mathew Campbell’s home in Lake Macquarie, the drug dealer was suddenly cooked on two fronts.

The first was the discovery in the house of 4.1kg of a substance laced with the psychoactive ingredient THC, which would attract a charge with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

And the second was the fact that the investigators had him for 11 separate supply counts of mailing vapes and lollies purported to be the laced with synthetic cannabis, but of which most had no such ingredient.

It meant Crawford, his wife Nicole, and a young family friend would be hit with the two strongest drug dealing charges there are – supplying a large commercial quantity and supplying a commercial quantity.

Nicole Crawford during her arrest at Swansea. Picture: NSW Police.
Nicole Crawford during her arrest at Swansea. Picture: NSW Police.

All three would plead guilty.

But despite the threat of a massive jail term, Mathew Crawford is now facing the prospect of being eligible for parole next week, after a sentencing judge determined on Friday that the time he had already served was sufficient for his role as principal of the dark web drug ring.

Items seized by Strike Force Alaine detectives during search warrants at Swansea and Caves Beach following investigation into alleged Lake Macquarie criminal syndicate selling prohibited drugs on the dark web. Picture: NSW Police.
Items seized by Strike Force Alaine detectives during search warrants at Swansea and Caves Beach following investigation into alleged Lake Macquarie criminal syndicate selling prohibited drugs on the dark web. Picture: NSW Police.

Nicole and the family friend, Ethan McMaugh, would escape full-time custody altogether after Newcastle District Court heard the wife helped label the products only because it was her husband’s dodgy business and McMaugh was under acute financial and emotional stress following the murder of his mother.

The trio had worked together in a joint criminal enterprise to meet the orders for the vapes and lollipops which the dealers had promised were laced with THC.

Strike Force Alaine detectives would work up the brief of evidence of the trio being involved in 11 separate mail orders totalling 1264 grams of the promised synthetic cannabis between September 2021 and their arrest in April 2022 during the raids at Swansea and Caves Beach.

The ring was essentially a mail order business using cryptocurrency and the dark web, where customers would pay for the products before Nicole and McMaugh would label them, pack them and McMaugh would mail them from Swansea post office.

Strike Force Alaine detectives seized a range of items during search warrants at Swansea and Caves Beach. Picture: NSW Police.
Strike Force Alaine detectives seized a range of items during search warrants at Swansea and Caves Beach. Picture: NSW Police.
Some items seized were later found to contain THC. Picture: NSW Police.
Some items seized were later found to contain THC. Picture: NSW Police.

The Crawfords also asked Judge Roy Ellis to take into account a charge of dealing in the proceeds of crime – $100,000 for Michael and $10,000 for Nicole.

Judge Ellis formally found Mathew Crawford as the principal offender and took into account the 49-year-old’s troubled childhood when sentencing him to an aggregate term of four years and three months imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.

It meant with time already served, he would be eligible for parole on December 11.

However, the court heard the NSW Parole Authority may not get to his case until as late as February.

His wife was sentenced to an aggregate term of two years and eight months to be served in the community as an intensive correction order.

McMaugh was sentenced earlier this year to two-and-a-half years, to also be served as an ICO.

Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/the-newcastle-news/swansea-couple-mathew-crawford-and-nicole-crawford-sentenced-over-large-commercial-supply-of-thc-on-dark-web/news-story/7f50f38cba6cf3f3beb1f251ea53ef62