A man suspected of being the long-time, Australia-based darknet market vendor AusCokeKing was arrested in his Sydney home on Thurs, May 18. Mark Chikarovski, 37, is the son of former politician Kerry Chikarovski, who was the leader of the New South Wales Liberal party from 1999-2002. AusCokeKing operated on several markets during his storied and controversial career, including Empire, ToRReZ, White House Market, World Market, Abacus, and ASAP, among others.
According to the local Detective Superintendent, Chikarovski was “shocked” when police showed up at his residence and was said to be wearing gloves while packaging drug orders to be mailed out later that day. Police confiscated around $269,000 in various cryptocurrencies, $30,000 AUD in cash, drugs, computers, and two Porsche SUVs during the arrest. The drugs included large quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, and “restricted prescription substances.”
Chikarovski posing with his mother, Kerry. Source: Sydney Morning Herald
In all, AusCokeKing is thought to have conducted millions of dollars in business across thousands of sales in nearly seven years as a vendor, which appears to have been a one-man operation. Mainly trafficking in sales of coke, meth and Ecstasy, the quality of the vendor’s products had been deteriorating over the course of his career, according to a chronology of reviews on the Dread forum.
An independent lab test posted to Dread last November of an AusCokeKing listing advertised as “Party Grade Cocaine” reported 0% cocaine and 90-95% glutamine, with the remaining 5-10% being an “uncertain match.” Two months ago, a test of product listed by the vendor as “A Grade Cocaine” came back as 30-35% cocaine, 20-25% caffeine, 20-25% methamphetamine, and the rest being inert or “uncertain” chemicals.
“Think we all knew this,” wrote one apparent customer of the product on Dread under a post with the test results. “Looks dodgy as fuck plus no pics on any site,” they added.
More recently, AusCokeKing had also been accused of substituting eutylone, a designer drug with stimulant and slight empathogenic effects, for MDMA.
Chikarovski appeared in court on Friday, May 19, where he was hit with 31 charges related to supplying prohibited drugs and cashing out proceeds related to crime. He was released on bail later that day.