The US Department of Justice announced the completion of a complex and large-scale covert operation on the darknet, in which representatives of the Investigative Service of the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Immigration and Customs Service, the US Postal Inspectorate, the US Secret Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration took part.
In total, the operation lasted more than a year, and its main goal was to identify on the darknet sellers of illegal and illegal goods on a national scale.
It all started in October 2016 with the arrest of a man offering services for exchanging cryptocurrencies for real money. His name was not disclosed. Since the detainee cooperated with the investigation, with his help, law enforcement officers began to "dig" under his clients. Ultimately, this led federal agents to work undercover for almost a year: in January 2017, Department of the Interior Investigation Service officers, together with the Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, advertised their services on various marketplaces, offering a service to launder money and withdrawal of cryptocurrencies to fiat.
During the year, there were many people on the darknet who wanted to use the services of federal agents. Law enforcers managed to find dozens of sellers of illegal goods working and working on such well-known trading platforms as Silk Road, AlphaBay, Hansa, Dream. So far, this has led to the initiation of more than 90 criminal cases from New York to California.
While the investigation is still ongoing, money laundering and asset recovery specialists from the Justice Department's Criminal Division are working with more than 40 prosecutors across the country to investigate 65 people. It is reported that these measures have already resulted in the arrest of more than 35 suspects.
In total, as a result of this large-scale operation, more than 70 search warrants were issued and already seized:
- a huge number of illicit drugs, including 333 bottles of liquid synthetic opioids, over 100,000 tramadol tablets, 100 grams of fentanyl, over 24 kilograms of Xanex, as well as oxycodone, cocaine, LSD, marijuana, MDMA and a hallucinogenic mushroom plantation;
- over 100 firearms, including pistols, assault rifles and even one grenade launcher;
- five vehicles purchased with illegally acquired funds and / or used to carry out criminal activities;
- over $ 3.6 million in cash and gold bars;
- more than 2,000 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, the total value of which exceeds $ 20,000,000 at the current exchange rate;
- 15 pill presses used to make illegal synthetic opioids;
- Bitcoin mining devices, computer equipment and vacuum sealers.
