Former SA Police officer Thomas James Booker and Ryan Jordan Suri-Tucker jailed over million-dollar dark web drug empire
Selling drugs on the dark web during Covid lockdowns, this ex-SA police officer raked in million in cash, crypto and high-end booze. Now he’s been jailed – and it’s all gone.
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In his years at the helm of a dark-web drug enterprise, former police officer Thomas James Booker accrued a fortune.
Hundreds of thousands in cash, luxury bottles of alcohol, crypto wallets and shares and a lone silver ingot.
On Friday that fortune disappeared as the District Court stripped Booker of the wealth he accumulated as part of his drug empire.
Booker himself has gone from an Adelaide apartment lined with drugs and cash to staring at the inside of a cell at the Mount Gambier Prison, the facility where they house sex offenders and former police officers.
His was the most modern of drug syndicates – running on the dark web, dealing in millions of dollars worth of drugs, fuelled by cryptocurrency and flourishing during the pandemic.
Booker, its mastermind, made up to $25,000 a day from his creation, but was snorting $10,000 worth of his own product each week.
When the “Underlinecost” user profile was finally busted, police found $1m in cash, $700,000 in crypto and more than $150,000 worth of cocaine, LSD, cannabis and steroids.
They also seized two residential properties full of expensive wines and liquor and a high-end motorcycle worth a combined $1.27m – all the proceeds of crime.
On Friday, ex-cop Thomas James Booker fought back tears as the District Court jailed him for 21 years, with a non-parole period of 15 years and two months.
His business partner, Ryan Jordan Suri-Tucker, was jailed for more than five years, with a 2 ½-year non-parole period, for his lesser role in the operation.
In sentencing, Judge Geraldine Davison said she accepted both men were remorseful, but that could not offset the gravity of their two-man syndicate.
“These offences were committed at a time when many areas of Australia were experiencing lockdown as a result of the pandemic,” she said.
“The fact that people could purchase drugs with relative anonymity no doubt encouraged those who would not otherwise have engaged in the dangerous and seedier side of drug dealing.
“You both effectively normalised drug-buying as if it were any other form of online shopping … to you, it felt no different than selling on eBay.
“The damage you have done, and the misery you have caused, cannot be underestimated.”
Booker, 28, pleaded guilty to more than 50 drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
After leaving SA Police in 2018, he began operating the Underlinecost account.
He eventually moved into Suri-Tucker’s spare room, which he leased for $5000 a month.
Booker made his riches by purchasing cannabis, cocaine and the psychedelic hallucinogen psilocin wholesale, then breaking them down into smaller units for sale online.
He also trafficked in large commercial amounts of LSD as well as laundering more than $300,000 cash and importing 8000 tabs of the drug from the Netherlands.
In February, the court heard Booker had turned to drugs after witnessing trauma in the line of duty – and his use increased following the death of his wife.
Suri-Tucker, 24, pleaded guilty to 14 offences.
Motivated by profit, he went from landlord to drug lord by working as Underlinecost’s crypto transaction processor.
The pair’s undoing came in 2021, when police recorded Booker picking up 8000 LSD tabs sent from Luxembourg, and tasked undercover officers to pose as new customers.
After purchasing bigger and bigger amounts – including 100 LSD tabs and 1g of cocaine for $1255 – they pounced in November 2021 and arrested the duo.
In sentencing on Friday, Judge Davison said the demand for drugs “skyrocketed” during the pandemic, and Booker “sold out of stock” in the first week of the pandemic.
That success, she said, prompted him to broker deals with overseas drug-sellers and learn from cryptocurrency experts in order to make his business even more lucrative.
“The drugs (you were using) made you feel invincible … you felt you were no longer obliged to comply with societal norms,” she said.
“It is in large measure because you are such an intelligent and hardworking person that you were able to commit these serious offences over such a long period of time.”
Judge Davison said Suri-Tucker idolised Booker, seeing him as “an older brother figure to emulate” due to issues stemming from his childhood.
“You made a series of poor choices and became involved in this business in a manner that reflects your search for a positive male role model and purpose in life,” she said.
She said Suri-Tucker’s offending was too serious for anything other than immediate imprisonment.
Judge Davison ordered Booker serve a six-year term, with a 38-month non-parole period, for importing the drugs and a 17-year sentence for the rest of his offending.
However, she dubbed that second sentence “crushing” and reduced it to 15 years, resulting in a total penalty that leaves Booker ineligible for parole until January 22, 2037.
She also authorised an application, by prosecutors, to seize all of Booker’s money and possessions as criminal assets and proceeds of crime.
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Originally published as Former SA Police officer Thomas James Booker and Ryan Jordan Suri-Tucker jailed over million-dollar dark web drug empire
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