Bitcoin Transactions Help Police Track Down Dark Web Drug DealerA French national has pleaded guilty to selling narcotics on the dark web after police were able to trace his criminal activities through his bitcoin accounts. Police arrested 36-year-old Gal Vallerius in September at the Atlanta airport in the US while traveling to attend a beard and mustache competition, according to Bleeping Computer.
Investigators said Vallerius, who used the name OxyMonster on the Dark Web, established a “tip jar” on the Dream Market marketplace. He did not use the marketplace’s internal payment systems that process transactions via a transaction anonymizer for collecting his tips.
Police learned that 15 of 17 outgoing transactions from the tip jar went to bitcoin wallets that Vallerius kept on LocalBitcoins. This allowed them to determine he was OxyMonster. They also found similarities between Vallerius’ and OxyMonster’s writing styles on Twitter and Instagram.
https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-transactions-help-police-track-down-dark-web-drug-dealer/