Parsarad is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and distribution of controlled substances in the Northern District of Ohio and elsewhere. In addition, Parsarad is also charged with money laundering conspiracy for both using proceeds to promote illegal drug dealing and for offering money laundering services through Nemesis Market by mixing cryptocurrencies used to pay for goods and services to obscure their origins. Nemesis users were not allowed to conduct transactions in official, government-backed currencies.
International Law Enforcement Cooperation
As Monaco noted Tuesday, the dark web drug racket was already a billion-dollar industry before the pandemic drove it to new heights. The demand hasn’t gone away, and suppliers will certainly try, at least, to meet it. The Dutch national police’s Cyber Enabled Crime Team was involved in the operation, code-named SpecTor. Investigators received leads from local police departments investigating overdose deaths, including that of a 19-year-old man in Colorado who loved learning languages and building his own computers, according to FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. One defendant in California led an organization that bought fentanyl in bulk, pressed it with methamphetamine into pills and sold millions of them to thousands of people on the dark web, he said. The largest number of arrests were made in the U.S., which is in the grips of an overdose crisis.
Archetyp Market: The Digital Underground Shaken
Monopoly Market has been on the dark web since 2019 and has since served as a hub where criminals can buy and sell drugs, according to CyberScoop. According to a newly filed superseding indictment, Thomas Pavey and Raheim Hamilton, owned and operated Empire Market from 2018 to 2020, during which time they facilitated approximately four million transactions between vendors and buyers valued at more than $430 million. The indictment charges Pavey and Hamilton with conspiring to engage in drug trafficking, computer fraud, access device fraud, counterfeiting, and money laundering. To become an Incognito Market vendor, people were required to register with the site and pay an admission fee.
In that time, it facilitated more than USD 100 million in drug sales, including hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine, alongside heroin, LSD, MDMA, oxycodone, ketamine, and misbranded prescription drugs. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Authorities in the U.S. and Europe arrested nearly 300 people, confiscated over $53 million, and seized a dark web marketplace as part of an international crackdown on drug trafficking that officials say was the largest operation of its kind. Archetyp’s takedown adds to a growing list of darknet markets shut down by international task forces in recent years.
The Rise And Fall Of Incognito Market
Known for facilitating the sale of cocaine, MDMA and highly potent synthetic opioids, the platform had more than 600,000 users and processed an estimated €250 million in transactions. The defendants then allegedly shipped the drugs throughout the United States via the United States Postal Service. (The name is a pun on Tor, the anonymity browser that enables dark web access.) Last year’s Operation DisrupTor netted a similar number of arrests and double the drug seizures. DarkMarket is also not the only dark web marketplace to have its servers seized. The indictment charges Pavey and Hamilton with conspiring with each other and others to engage in drug trafficking, computer fraud, access device fraud, counterfeiting, and money laundering.
While announced as a package today, the arrests in the US have trickled through over the last several months. In a press conference Tuesday morning, DEA acting administrator Timothy Shea specifically called out Arden McCann, allegedly known as RCQueen, DRXanax, and other aliases across numerous dark web markets. Arrested earlier this year, McCann allegedly shipped over 10 2kilograms of fentanyl and over 300,000 counterfeit Xanax pills every month.
Popular Darknet Markets – All Dark Markets
While the method has its limitations, HugBunter argued that failure to provide a cryptographic signature alongside continued account activity could be telling. In stepped Empire Market which appeared in February 2018 (about 6-7 months after the demise of AlphaBay/Hansa) and soon became the leader of the Western darknet market ecosystem. The fact that its graphical user interface was built to resemble that of AlphaBay was purposely done to instill a sense of familiarity for users who had become accustomed to AlphaBay. In another significant case, Brian McDonald of California copped a 20-year sentence after admitting he used various darknet aliases to sling fentanyl and cocaine nationwide. Tragically, investigators linked at least one confirmed overdose death directly to his operation.
Cybercriminals Exploit Anthropic’s AI In Global Extortion Campaign
The mission of the EDTF is to disrupt, dismantle, or render ineffective, organizations involved in the laundering of proceeds of narcotics trafficking and other financial crimes. Since its inception in 1992, the Task Force has been responsible for the seizure of approximately $600 million and more than 2100 arrests. The EDTF is the premier money laundering task force in the nation and comprises more than 200 law enforcement personnel representing approximately 35 federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory agencies. The EDTF’s mission is to disrupt, dismantle or render ineffective organizations involved in the laundering of proceeds of narcotics trafficking and other financial crimes.
Staying Protected Against Digital Intrusions
Data from dismantled sites like Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Kingdom Markets gave authorities crucial leads, helping them identify and track down darknet vendors and their customers across the globe. Over its five years in operation, Archetyp Market recorded over 612,000 users and facilitated €250 million worth of illicit sales. Its seamless structure and longevity made it a cornerstone of dark web activity. But the platform’s downfall began with a coordinated effort between police forces, cybercrime experts, and judicial authorities. The Netherlands led the technical takedown of the market’s servers, while a 30-year-old German national, believed to be the site’s primary administrator, was captured in Barcelona, Spain.
And previous seizures like those of Hansa and Wall Street Market are likely still paying dividends for investigators. This also means that Operation Dark HunTor likely isn’t the final word on dark web arrests and that illicit marketplace vendors may have to proceed with a little more caution. ‘This operation led by the German authorities marks the end of a criminal service that enabled the anonymous trade in high volumes of illicit drugs, including cocaine, MDMA, amphetamines, and synthetic opioids’, the statement said. The number of arrests and amount of money seized were the most for any international Justice Department-led drug trafficking operation, he said. The cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) is particularly difficult to trace, unlike Bitcoin.
The FBI Cleveland Field Office is investigating the case with assistance from the DEA and IRS-CI in Chicago. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and Cybercrime Liaison Prosecutor to Eurojust provided significant assistance. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. This case was worked jointly with the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Hawthorne Police Department, the Costa Mesa Police Department, and IRS Criminal Investigation. During yesterday’s arrests and searches, assistance was provided by the Los Angeles Police Department.
- Operation SpecTor spanned nine countries and brought down the illegal dark web marketplace Monopoly Market.
- Dean, a student at the University of Cambridge, started dealing in his second year and supplies himself from the Dark Web.
- The takedown brings an end to a major online drug marketplace that had operated largely uninterrupted for over five years.
- In addition, the United States and international law enforcement partners made 270 arrests of dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.
- For the first time, FBI agents from all the bureau’s field offices also visited buyers to tell them about the overdose danger of pills sold online, which are often disguised to look like prescription drugs.
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Over 200 arrested in darknet market arrests crime crackdown This time, it decided to market an encrypted app of its own to target organized. Federal investigators in the United States, Germany and the Netherlands announced dream market darknet link today the arrest and charging of three German nationals. Virginia Woman arrested for hiring a Hitman on the Darknet The administrators of White House Market have announced that the site is being shut down. Operation DisrupTor used information from another major darknet market raided in April 2019, FBI Director Christopher Wray said. Posing as money launderers on dark web markets, special agents of the The investigation into more than 65 targets led to the arrest of. Focusing on the widening illicit drug market on the dark web, In addition to the 65 arrests in the United States, there were 47 in.
It’s unclear how big a dent Operation Disruptor will make in the long run; the dark web drug market tends to bounce back, even after the high-profile collapses of marketplaces like the Silk Road and AlphaBay. But even if law enforcement is playing an eternal game of Whac-A-Mole, it’s at least gotten extremely proficient at whacking. This monumental action, part of a joint initiative codenamed Operation Deep Sentinel, was led by German authorities in collaboration with Europol and Eurojust. The multi-day enforcement efforts between June 11 and 13 spanned six nations — Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Romania, and others — and led to multiple arrests, asset seizures, and a complete takedown of the platform’s infrastructure. The enforcement action took place between 11 and 13 June, with police forces in Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and Sweden executing a series of targeted operations.
