Dov Tenenboim sentenced for Bondi drug ring

A bummed out Bitcoin drug baron, who flooded Sydney’s east with literal designer-branded drugs, will serve at least a decade in prison.

A bummed out Bitcoin drug baron — who flooded Sydney‘s east with literal designer-branded drugs — told his family “it is what it is” after he was given at least a decade in prison.

But Vaucluse’s “elite hacker” crime lord, Dov Tenenboim, has vowed to appeal his sentence as his family yelled out support over his online court hearing.

Tenenboim, 36, was arrested in mid-2018 after police unravelled his “sophisticated” and “persistent” drug import business, NSW District Court Judge Ian McClintock SC said on Monday.

A European underworld figure, known by the pseudonym Mike Allen, helped Tenenboim procure his illicit wares from abroad for the first year via the dark web, the court heard.

The operation relied on sophisticated technology but simple strategy — the drugs would arrive in Sydney hidden in candles or baby formula, addressed to fake names in the city’s east.

Dov Tenenboim, 36, will serve at leats a decade in jail.

Dov Tenenboim has been described as an “elite hacker.”

Tenenboim’s “agents” would retrieve the packages for their boss before they were broken up, mixed together or otherwise repackaged and sent to customers across the eastern states.

The self described “creative technologist, disrupter and entrepreneur” and “elite hacker” would later tell authorities it didn’t really feel like drug dealing — just like computer transactions.

Tenenboim’s customers would pay him in cryptocurrency, primarily bitcoin, or he’d convert his earnings into the online currency for future use, the court heard.

Kilograms of drugs — cocaine, MDMA and ketamine — largely escaped detection by the authorities.

Their customers were other drug networks, the judge said.

Eventually Allen came to Sydney to run Tenenboim’s empire as Tenenboim travelled to South Africa.

Allen sat in a Bondi luxury suite receiving encrypted instructions from Tenenboim to mix and ship massive amounts of cocaine and pills to other syndicates.

At one time “The Albanians”, a Tenenboim client, paid $164,000 for a kilo of cocaine but returned half saying the quality wasn’t up to scratch.

Allen kept a few hundred grams for himself, the court heard.

When police raided Allen’s apartment they found thousands of pills and piles of powder — the substances were pressed into colourful tablets like blue and green “Versaces”, pink “Pokemons” and camel shaped MDMA.

Bolivian cocaine and Columbian cocaine were stored separately, as was the ketamine.

Tenenboim’s DNA was on a cigarette butt in Allen’s ashtray.

But plenty more emerged when the European turned against Tenenboim to try and get a lighter sentence.

Dov Tenenboim during his 218 arrest. Picture: NSW Police

Dov Tenenboim surrounded by police after he was apprehended. Picture: NSW Police

Allen gave “grandiose evidence” that painted himself as a big-timer in the underworld, Judge McClintock said, noting he had since been locked up too.

Tenenboim would plead guilty and has been in prison since his arrest three years ago.

The judge said Tenenboim was facing two possible life sentences for importing and directing a business that dealt “many-multiples” of the commercial quantity of drugs.

Tenenboim was given 16 years and four months prison with a non parole period of 10 and a half years.

The judge noted Tenenboim grew up in a staunchly Jewish family that had been cast into grief when his father committed suicide in 2006.

Tenenboim had been an anxious young man who had turned to computers but committed minor dishonesty offences before swapping his online gold selling for drug dealing.

His family remain strong supporters, the judge said.

“It is what it is,” Tenenboim told them over the videolink after the sentence was handed down.

“I think I’ll appeal anyway, he made lots of errors on judgment.”

A relative said they were thinking of him, and they loved him before he left the room.

Tenenboim will be eligible for release in 2028.