A former Vancouver man could be facing a minimum of 20 years in a U.S. jail after he was convicted for trafficking opioids on a dark-web platform that led to the overdose deaths of two U.S. Navy members.
Paul Anthony Nicholls, a British national, was convicted on Jan. 29 in Georgia for one count of conspiracy to import controlled substances resulting in death and one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances resulting in death after a four-day trial, according to a release from RCMP Thursday (Feb. 5).
He could face a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison or a maximum possible sentence of life in prison and “significant” monetary penalties, a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office notes. It adds there is no parole in the federal system.
Nicholls, 47, was on trial following an RCMP investigation into a Canadian drug-trafficking organization called Canada1 on the now-defunct dark-web marketplace called Dream Market, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The RCMP say that in response to the growing opioid crisis – which was officially declared a public health crisis in B.C. in 2016 – Mounties developed a “proactive plan” to target dark-web drug trafficking.
It adds that a team of investigators who had “specific talents and interests in developing investigative techniques unique to the dark web and postal systems” was formed.
The attorney’s office says Canada1 advertised various controlled substances for sale on Dream Market, including the synthetic opioid U-47700 and the fentanyl analogue Methoxy acetyl fentanyl. The organization advertised that it would ship the substances “anywhere in the world” from its base in Vancouver.
Investigators identified Nicholls as “routinely interacting with his conspirator and taking numerous packages bearing the logo for a shell company named ‘East Van ECO Tours’ to be sent out via Canada Post.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says investigators intercepted more than 40 packages with the East Van ECO Tours markings and “found them all to contain dangerous fentanyl analogues in both nasal spray and powder form.”
Nicholls home and car, along with his alleged conspirator’s home and car, were searched by police. His alleged conspirator is not named as he hasn’t been tried on his indictment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that the valued fentanyl analogues recovered from Nicholl’s alleged conspirator’s home was an estimated $24 million with enough substances present to kill an estimated 375,000.
Through the search, investigators found receipts with tracking numbers for “thousands” of packages sent out around the world, including two packages that were sent to Kingsland, Ga. in October 2017.
The contents of the two packages were consumed at the home of one of two unnamed U.S. Navy submariners. They each died of overdoses four days apart in October 2017.
The RCMP investigators worked closely with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Kingsland Police Department, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration once the agencies linked the overdose deaths to the dark-web network in the Lower Mainland.
The RCMP initially submitted charges to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada for the Canadian investigation, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office ultimately assumed conduct “due to the severity of the offences and the deaths occurring in U.S. jurisdiction.”
According to the release, the U.S. prosecution relied “heavily” on evidence from the RCMP investigation, with 13 RCMP employees testifying at the trial: 12 officers and one analyst.