US: Indian-origin man pays $150 million in cryptocurrency for selling drugs on dark web

Extradited from the UK, a 40-year-old Indian national entered a guilty plea to running a worldwide dark web business that sold “deadly and dangerous drugs to communities across America” and forfeited about USD 150 million in cryptocurrency. The US Department of Justice said in a press release that Banmeet Singh, of Haldwani, Uttarakhand, established vendor marketing sites on dark web marketplaces to sell controlled substances, such as fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, Ketamine, and Tramadol, according to court documents. Clients paid with cryptocurrency and used the vendor sites to order restricted substances from Singh. The release on Friday stated that Singh then personally arranged or shipped the drugs from Europe to America via US mail or other shipping services. Banmeet Singh and traffickers like him think they can operate anonymously on the dark web and evade prosecution…Today’s guilty plea, which includes forfeiture of approximately USD 150 million in cryptocurrency, demonstrates that the Justice Department will hold criminals who violate US law accountable no matter how they conceal their activity," Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M Argentieri of the justice department’s Criminal Division said. From mid-2012 through July 2017, Singh controlled at least eight distribution cells within the US, including cells located in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, and Washington, among other locations. Individuals in those distribution cells received drug shipments from overseas and then re-packaged and re-shipped the drugs to locations in all 50 states, Canada, England, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland, and the US Virgin Islands, the release said. Banmeet Singh operated a global dark web enterprise to send fentanyl and other deadly and dangerous drugs to communities across America in all 50 states as well as Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean, said Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Over the course of the conspiracy, Singh moved hundreds of kilograms of controlled substances throughout the US and established a multimillion-dollar drug enterprise which laundered millions of dollars of drug proceeds into cryptocurrency accounts, which ultimately became worth approximately USD 150 million. In April 2019, Singh was arrested in London, and the US secured his extradition in 2023. Singh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces an agreed upon sentence of eight years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, the release said. (with inputs from PTI)