Arrests.
Shikhir Arora faces felony charges after U.S. and Australian authorities uncover a drug shipment scheme involving the Darknet
A Worcester Township man has been charged with felony methamphetamine trafficking offenses by Montgomery County detectives following an investigation involving the shipment of the illicit drugs to Australia.
Shikhir Arora, 31, of the 2200 block of Ayreshire Drive, faces two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, and two misdemeanor counts each of intentional possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The investigation involved the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General, authorities said.
According to charging documents, The Department of Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia office received information from HSI Australia in September 2021 that the Australian Federal Police identified quantities of meth being shipped from Lansdale to Western Australia, mailed from Arora’s home.
On June 20, 2022, Australian Border Force examined an inbound UPS parcel destined for Western Australia, investigators said. Upon further examination, about three grams of meth was found in the parcel, per the documents.
The shipper was listed as “Voxtro Inc.” with Arora’s address, police said.
Detectives said many narcotics traffickers advertise controlled substances online via the “Darknet” or encrypted peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging applications like CashApp. In order to evade detection from authorities, traffickers will often purchase USPS postage from resellers who accept Bitcoin or other virtual currencies and use false or fraudulent return addresses, investigators said.
Police said these Darknet resources are accessed via phones, computers, hard drives, removable storage devices and USBs, portable computers and electronic devices capable of storing electronic data.
Authorities said the street value of one gram of meth in Australia is equivalent to $300 to $475 in U.S. currency. In Philadelphia, the street value of one gram of meth is about $20 to $30, police said.
“Using that information it can be determined that a Philadelphia Metropolitan area drug trafficker would not need to traffic/deliver large quantities of methamphetamine to make a profit on the money they spent buying the drugs,” detectives wrote in the affidavit. “Unlike traditional drug traffickers, people who ship methamphetamine to Australia do not need to conduct their business in large quantities of drugs to make a large profit.”
Investigators said if an ounce of meth in the Philadelphia area can cost $250-$300, then that same ounce shipped to Australia and repackaged into single gram quantities results in 28 individual packages, for 28 grams in one ounce, being sold for $300 to $475, potentially netting more than $13,000 in profit.
In November 2024, investigators with the USPS Inspector General received a mail watch request from authorities for Arora’s home, and a special agent was notified of all incoming parcels, police said.
On Nov. 8, 2024, authorities found the mail watch listed a package from “Green Line LLC – Canoga Park, CA” allegedly being shipped to Arora. Authorities seized the package at Lansdale Post Office and turned it over to investigators at Abington Police and Cheltenham Township Police, per the affidavit.
A Cheltenham Police K9 alerted officers to the presence of a controlled substance, police said. A judge issued a search warrant to open the package and examine its contents, per the complaint.
On Nov. 9, the warrant was served and 30 grams of meth was found inside the package, police said.
A search warrant for Arora’s home was issued on Nov. 12. County detectives and Homeland Security investigators set up a controlled delivery of the seized package, police said.
The package was delivered at 12:23 p.m., and three minutes later, Arora allegedly retrieved it from the mailbox and took it inside the home.
Police said at 12:31 p.m., the search warrant was served and Arora was found immediately inside the front door of his home.
Arora had the package in one hand and his phone in the other hand, police said.
In Arora’s basement, detectives allegedly found 35 grams of meth on top of a desk.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
