Cairns man Terry Blackmore pleads guilty to 10 drug charges in Supreme Court

A Cairns bodybuilder ran a highly sophisticated ‘Aussie Tanks’ website selling steroids on the dark web with 300 clients and transactions totalling up to $760,000, a court has heard.

A Cairns bodybuilder ran an illegal steroid business called Aussie Tanks on the dark web, selling more than 96 products, Cairns Supreme Court heard on Monday.

Crown prosecutor Rachel Boivin said UK citizen Terry Blackmore, 41, who is married with two children, had 300 clients receiving encrypted messages on a group chat.

The website began in early 2020 with steroids advertised on it, with an arrangement for buyers to have items shipped to them.

British expat Terry Allen Blackmore, 41, was sentenced in Cairns Supreme Court on Monday October 16 to nine counts of possessing drugs and one count of trafficking, with the court hearing he ran a highly sophisticated illegal steroids website on the dark web. Picture: Supplied

Blackmore had 19 other vendors providing products on the website, and paying him commission for what was sold.

He ran incentives to encourage sales and had the website on an offshore server.

Blackmore used bank accounts not in his name.

Justice James Henry said the products were packaged in a professional way with 0318 laboratories labelling.

Queensland reclassified steroids a schedule one drug in 2014. This means they are now classed alongside heroin, cocaine and ice in the highest category of dangerous illicit drugs. Picture: File photo

He noted Blackmore was working with a Bondi Beach supplier, who is also facing charges.

Clients paid more than $339,000 for supply and shipping, there were 293 orders placed on the site, total transactions were from $560,000 to $760,000 and Blackmore paid $150,000 to other vendors, earning $60,000 to $75,000 commission.

“It was a successful business, a busy business, conducted in a very professional way,” Justice Henry said.

“Your income would have been higher than $100,000, you were the person who was running the store.

“Bodybuilders don’t look at the problems they create using steroids, the impact of amateurish measuring of improperly screened drugs … the effects of misuse are grave,” Justice Henry said.

“Those in that community do rationalise it, they don’t see it as wicked or bad like other drugs, and turn a blind eye to potential adverse consequences.

“For all of that rationalisation, it is clear you knew you were doing something illegal,” he said.

The court heard the operation ran from January 2020 to September 2021.

Blackmore pleaded guilty to nine counts of possessing drugs and one count of trafficking.

He sentenced Blackmore to five years in prison to be suspended after 15 months, with an operational period of five years.

Blackmore has a further 22 charges of unlawful possession of restricted drugs and one charge of possessing property suspected of having been used in connection with the commission of a drug offence listed for Cairns Magistrates cCourt callover on December 8.

The matters were first heard on October 18, 2021 and more recently on June 30, 2023.

Originally published as Cairns man Terry Blackmore pleads guilty to 10 drug charges in Supreme Court