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A British resident accused of utilizing the darkish net to promote illicit medication around the globe has agreed to give up bitcoin valued at a whole lot of tens of millions in what officers stated is believed to be the biggest seizure of cryptocurrency within the historical past of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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Banmeet Singh, 40, who was extradited from the UK in March 2023, pleaded responsible to cash laundering and one other cost Friday morning at a federal courthouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of Ohio stated it’s believed to be the “largest single cryptocurrency monetary seizure in DEA historical past.” In response to the plea settlement, Singh is forfeiting greater than 8,100 bitcoin, which was valued at $150 million when it was initially seized. The worth of bitcoin fluctuates, and the quantity being forfeited was presently greater than $340 million Friday at 2 p.m.
Singh is accused of utilizing dark-web websites to promote heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, LSD, MDMA, Xanax and Tramadol to prospects in cities throughout the US between 2012 and 2017. Clients paid in bitcoin, MoneyGram, PayPal or money, in accordance with court docket data, and Singh would then organize shipments of the medication to the US by way of mail carriers or package deal supply companies.
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Singh was considered one of eight members of the ring convicted in the US, DEA Particular Agent in Cost Orville O. Greene, whose area workplace covers Ohio and Michigan, stated at a Friday information convention.
He used darkish net marketplaces together with Silk Highway, Alpha Bay, Hansa and Dream Market, in accordance with the plea settlement unsealed Thursday.
Singh, an Indian nationwide residing in England, was indicted in Ohio in 2018 and arrested the next yr. He was not extradited to the US till final yr.
The plea settlement states that Singh will plead responsible to cash laundering and conspiracy to distribute managed substances. He’s anticipated to be sentenced to eight years in jail, although a decide will finally need to approve the phrases of the deal. No sentencing date has been set.
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His attorneys, David Thomas and Paul D. Petruzzi, declined to remark.
Now shuttered, Silk Highway was a infamous market for illicit medication. Earlier this month, judges sentenced a Maryland father and son – who bought medication on Silk Highway and comparable marketplaces underneath the display identify XanaxMan – to jail on cash laundering costs. They forfeited practically 3,000 bitcoin. In one other case tied to {the marketplace}, the Justice Division in 2022 introduced it seized cryptocurrency stolen from Silk Highway value $3.36 billion.
Additionally in 2022, the Justice Division introduced it seized bitcoin value greater than $3.6 billion that had been stolen from the Bitfinex trade. A married couple from New York later pleaded responsible to cash laundering within the case.
— Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
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