A Scottish man has been jailed for five years after trying to buy weapons and ammunition on the dark web.

48-year old David Mitchell, from Damside, Edinburgh, spent more than £2,000 of Bitcoin cryptocurrency to purchase a Glock 9mm handgun, complete with a silencer and 150 rounds of ammunition.

A joint police operation between US authorities and Police Scotland snared Mitchell after extensive surveillance.

Dark Web Curiosity

The National Crime Association (NCA) and Police Scotland seized the firearm at the point of exit from the United States.

Following the seizure, a fake parcel known as a “placebo” was delivered to Mitchell’s work address in Dunfermline in place of the original package.

Surveillance operations led officers back to the software engineer’s home, at which point officers entered the property to find the opened package in the kitchen.

Mitchell admitted three firearms offences during an appearance at the High Court in Edinburgh in December. The court was told Mitchell had an “obsessive preoccupation” with purchasing goods on the dark web to see whether it was possible.

He returned to court on Monday 14th January where he was handed the five-year sentence.

Judge Lord Pentland said: “It appears that you formed a plan to obtain these items by carrying out research on the dark web and then proceeding to order them for delivery to this country from the United States.

“Fortunately, due to cooperation between the police force of both countries, your plan was thwarted and the items were intercepted.”

Lord Pentland added: “It appears that your decision to acquire the gun and other items arose from an obsessive preoccupation on your part with exploring whether it was possible to do so by making use of the dark web.”

Read more: Has your Identity been Sold on the Dark Web?

Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean, head of Police Scotland’s organised crime and counter-terrorism unit, commented: “David Mitchell never offered any information that would have allowed us to better understand what his motivation was to securing a firearm.”

Mitchell is not the first UK citizen to be caught in the act of purchasing firearms via the dark web. In 2015, a Welsh teenager was convicted for attempting to purchase a Glock handgun from a US-based dealer.

The 17-year old from Cardiff was sentenced to 12-months in a young offenders’ institution following a raid at the boy’s home.

The NCA found he had also been involved in separate cybercrime activities, including the orchestration of a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack to shut down web pages.

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