Britain’s Got Talent contestant convicted over dark web drug racket

A former Britain’s Got Talent contestant has been convicted over her role in a dark web drug racket.

Singer Olivia Archbold, 23, who appeared on the ITV show in 2010, was accused of helping her boyfriend Alex Nash, 24, sell cannabis for Bitcoin.

Archbold admitted production of cannabis, being concerned in the supply of the drug, and possessing criminal property, reports the Mirror.

On Friday, the Cheshire resident was sentenced to nine months in jail, suspended for two years.

Manchester Crown Court heard Archbold and Nash would inject THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, into chocolate and sweets they would post throughout the UK.

Cops intercepted parcels addressed to the drug dealers’ Manchester flat and raided it in 2017.

Drug imports

Prosecutor Rob Hall called the operation “sophisticated” and described how cannabis was imported from Holland and the US.

He said: ‘”Alex Nash was using many different cyber identities which were reported, anonymous, and encrypted on the dark web.

“Alex Nash used the Bitcoins available to him for those cannabis transactions.”

Archbold was 14 when she made it to the semi-finals of the talent show in 2010.

Judge Amanda Holden praised the singer and called her performance “professional and confident”.

Nash, 24, admitted the same offences as well as a further charge of importing cannabis and was given two years in jail suspended for 24 months and 300 hours unpaid work.

Last month, a Scottish man was jailed for five years after importing a handgun paid for in cryptocurrency from the United States to his office in Fife, Scotland.

David Mitchell, 48, was arrested by the Organised Crime Partnership in Scotland after a package containing a fully operational Glock handgun, a silencer, and bullets was flagged by United States border agents.