Bitcoin Forum

The extensive operation, which lasted nine months, resulted in over dozens of federal prosecutions including:

The Los Angeles JCODE Task Force, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, successfully dismantled a drug trafficking organization that used online monikers such as “Stealthgod” to sell methamphetamine and MDMA on multiple Darknet marketplaces. Investigators have linked the crew to more than 18,000 illicit drug sales to customers in at least 35 states and numerous countries around the world. During law enforcement actions in Southern California earlier this year, members of JCODE arrested five defendants and seized approximately 120 pounds of methamphetamine, seven kilograms of MDMA and five firearms. Two of the five – Teresa McGrath, 34, of Sunland-Tujunga, and Mark Chavez, 41, of downtown Los Angeles – have since pleaded guilty to narcotics-trafficking and other offenses, and each faces a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence. As the investigation continued, the Los Angeles JCODE Task Force made additional seizures, including $1.6 million in cryptocurrency, 11 pounds of methamphetamine and 14 pounds of pills pressed with methamphetamine. Andres Bermudez, 37, of Palmdale, California, who allegedly was a main supplier of methamphetamine to the “Stealthgod” crew, was charged last week with a narcotics-trafficking offense that carry a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence. He is considered a fugitive.
 
Arden McCann, 32, of Quebec, Canada, was charged with conspiring to import drugs into the United States and money laundering conspiracy, in a four-count indictment returned by a grand jury in Atlanta, Georgia. According to court documents, the defendant is alleged to have imported alprazolam, fentanyl, U-47700, and fentanyl analogues such as carfentanil, furanyl fentanyl, 4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl, acryl fentanyl, and methoxyacetyl fentanyl into the United States from Canada and China. The superseding indictment alleges that fentanyl analogues the defendant imported into the United States resulted in a non-fatal overdose in April 2016, and fentanyl the defendant imported into the United States resulted in an overdose death in December 2016.
 
Khlari Sirotkin, 36, of Colorado; Kelly Stephens, 32, of Colorado; Sean Deaver, 36, of Nevada; Abby Jones, 37, of Nevada; and Sasha Sirotkin, 32, of California, were charged with drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy, in a 21-count indictment returned by a grand jury in Cincinnati, Ohio. According to court documents, the defendants are alleged to be members of one of the most prolific online drug trafficking organizations in the United States and allegedly specialized in the manufacturing and distribution of more than one million fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills and laundered approximately $2.8 million over the course of the conspiracy. The pressed fentanyl pills, along with heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine, were shipped to the Southern District of Ohio and throughout the country. FBI, DEA, FDA, HSI and USPIS agents seized 2.5 kilograms of fentanyl; 5,095 pressed xanax; 50 suboxone; 16.5 grams of cocaine; 37 grams of crystal meth; 12 grams of black tar heroin; an industrial pill press; 5,908 pounds of dried marijuana with an estimated street value of $9 million; $80,191 in cash, 10 firearms and one pound of fentanyl.
 
The FBI Washington Field Office’s Hi-Tech Opioid Task Force, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, successfully thwarted a firebomb attack plot involving explosives, firearms, the Darknet, prescription opioid trafficking, cryptocurrency, and sophisticated money laundering. William Anderson Burgamy, 33, of Hanover, Maryland, and Hyrum T. Wilson, 41, of Auburn, Nebraska, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to charges related to a conspiracy to use explosives to firebomb and destroy a competitor pharmacy in Nebraska. Burgamy, who is not a pharmacist, operated as the Darknet vendor NeverPressedRX (NPRX) since at least August 2019. Wilson, who was a licensed pharmacist, illegally mailed to Burgamy over 19,000 dosage units of prescription medications, including opioids, from his pharmacy in Nebraska. Burgamy illegally sold prescription drugs through his Darknet vendor account to customers nationwide, and claimed at one point that he made nearly $1 million total. Burgamy and Wilson agreed that Burgamy and another individual would carry multiple firearms during the attack operation and use explosives, specifically Molotov cocktails enhanced with Styrofoam as a thickening agent, to burn the victim pharmacy down in furtherance of their drug trafficking scheme. Law enforcement agents seized thousands of opioid pills, eight unsecured firearms, including two loaded AR-15 assault rifles with high capacity magazines, and over $19,000 cash. Prior to Burgamy’s arrest in April 2020, which uncovered and thwarted the firebombing plot, Burgamy and Wilson fully intended on the attack occurring after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
 
Aaron Brewer, 39, of Corsicana, Texas, was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and distribution of a controlled substance in a two-count indictment returned by a grand jury in the Northern District of Texas. According to court documents, the defendant allegedly sold cocaine, heroin, and other drugs via the dark web. He allegedly accepted payment in cryptocurrency, primarily bitcoin, and then shipped the drugs to customers’ addresses through the U.S. mail and other shipping services.  Following Mr. Brewer’s arrest on July 2, agents with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and FBI Dallas Field Office seized roughly 650 grams of black tar heroin, cocaine, and OxyContin, two computers, and more than $870 in postage stamps, as well as a ledger outlining 757 drug shipments sent to 609 unique addresses between December 2019 and March 2020.

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

over $6.5 Million in cash and crypto

Will my account and my fund will get trouble by unintentionally involve in such flow of money/ crypto from darknets?

At least they wont be able to put all the blame on Crypto. Is it known which Crypto was seized?

Will my account and my fund will get trouble by unintentionally involve in such flow of money/ crypto from darknets?

Moving 19k dosage units from one pharmacy with such a small population is going to make someone take a look. After that it's just follow the money.

At least they wont be able to put all the blame on Crypto. Is it known which Crypto was seized?

As long as you can show that you received fund from those P2P exchanges, you should be safe. This will indeed help to nab those criminals through your FIAT trail.

Can we assume that the crypto is bitcoin? since it is highly used in darknet to buy things, safer than the other cryptocurrencies. Or it is not bitcoin, coz if it is bitcoin they will frontpiece it to the media taking a strong negativity towards the whole crypto community. Or they didn't really know if it is crypto of digital money  ::)

Most of the darknet deals are taking place in Monero rather than BTCitcoin who is having a trail of every transaction made and no one in the right sense would indulge in illegal activities with situation like these. Coming to this raid, it looks like a combined operation against illegal drugs in darknet market places and the focus is not to trash BTCitcoin but to shut down these drug business enterprises globally and when you are doing that you will find many forms of currency including digital and cryptocurrency.

In a joint operation with different US agencies and other countries, FBI seized of of Weapons, Drugs and over $6.5 Million in cash and crypto. Coordinated effort to stop the trade of opium trafficking in the dark net. Resulting in an arrest of 170 criminals worldwide.

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/international-law-enforcement-operation-targeting-opioid-traffickers-darknet-results-over-170

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

It may seem like a lot to some, but $6.5 million is a drop in the ocean when compared to hundreds of billions of dollars in total drug and arms trade. With this operation, they barely touched the dark web and caught only those who are not skilled enough to protect their identity. But I realize that election year is in the USA, every success must be made public so that the current president can brag about his achievements - here is another credit for the Nobel Prize ::)

Now I wonder, where does the seized money (crypto or cash) are going to after the raids and arrests? Does it go to the government and its department of finance? ... But still, why does with such huge amount, the country is still in huge dept nor haven't changed at all?

On 27 June 2014, the U.S. Marshals Service sold 29,657 bitcoins in 10 blocks in an online auction, estimated to be worth $18 million at contemporary rates and only about a quarter of the seized bitcoins. Another 144,342 bitcoins were kept which had been found on Ulbricht's computer, roughly $87 million. Tim Draper bought the bitcoins at the auction with an estimated worth of $17 million, to lend them to a bitcoin start-up called Vaurum which is working in developing economies of emerging markets.

it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.