A hospitality worker who had moved back into his parents' home due to financial hardship was secretly running one of Australia's largest darknet drug operations from his bedroom, a Melbourne court has heard. Benjamin Sheppard operated the marketplace "ApexSupplies" on the Tor network, selling MDMA, ketamine, LSD and the psychedelic 2C-B to buyers who paid in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Monero. Victoria Police uncovered the operation via Operation Vitreous, launched in August 2023, after officers stationed at Melbourne Airport's Australia Post facility began screening parcels for drugs.

Investigators found Sheppard generated more than AU$2 million in sales between September 2023 and October last year, trafficking nearly 13kg of MDMA and almost 12kg of ketamine. Undercover officers bought drugs directly from the site, while CCTV footage of distinctive "eBay Plus" labelled parcels, bearing pills stamped with a red "anarchy" symbol, helped trace the operation to Sheppard's home in Belgrave South. He was placed under surveillance and arrested at his address on 8 October last year, with police seizing drugs, drug-making equipment and AU$10,000 in cash.