A dark net drug dealer who sold ecstasy linked to the deaths of two island brothers has been jailed for 16 years.

Jacques and Torin Lakeman from Port St Mary were found dead from a drug overdose in a room above a Bolton pub in December 2014.

They had bought ecstasy from a dark web vendor page.

This week the man behind the web page, Kurt Lai Lan, 26, was jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of importing and supplying a class A drug following an 11-day trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.

The court heard Lai Lan had run a ’sophisticated’ dark web business earning him hundreds of thousands of pounds which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle.

But his lawyer said there was ’no causal link’ between the drugs Lai Lan sold and the death of the brothers. A post mortem examination found the amount of ecstasy ingested ’exceeded’ the amount bought online.

The court heard that Lai Lan made purchases and sales using the crypto currency Bitcoin and devices and software were used to mask online activity.

In May last year, police from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit intercepted jigsaw puzzle boxes sent from the Netherlands to Lai Lan’s in Fratton.

They contained more than 8,000 tablets with a street value of £80,000.

Lai Lan was arrested but then released under investigation.

Then in June this year, he was arrested at Gatwick Airport attempting to board a flight to South Africa on a one-way ticket.

Torin and Jacques’ father, Ray Lakeman, spoke to the Courier after the case.

’Police are doing their best but there is no way to stop it,’ he said.

’If my boys were able to get on to the dark web, anybody can do it.’

Read his comments by clicking on the link below.