Indian pleads guilty in US to running dark web drug enterprise, forfeits USD 150 mn in cryptocurrency

A 40-year-old Indian national extradited from the UK has pleaded guilty to operating a global dark web enterprise to sell “deadly and dangerous drugs to communities across America” and agreed to forfeit approximately USD 150 million in cryptocurrency. According to court documents, Banmeet Singh from Haldwani in Uttarakhand created vendor marketing sites on dark web marketplaces to sell controlled substances, including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, Ketamine, and Tramadol, the US Department of Justice said in a press release.

Customers ordered controlled substances from Singh using the vendor sites and by paying with cryptocurrency. Singh then personally shipped or arranged the shipment of the drugs from Europe to America through US mail or other shipping services,