India’s ‘Most Prolific Darknet Drug Syndicate’ Used Monero to Evade Cops – Decrypt

India’s Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB) has dismantled what it calls the nation’s “most prolific darknet drug syndicate,” arresting a 35-year-old engineer from Muvattupuzha who’s accused of working the community single-handedly whereas his circle of relatives remained unaware of his unlawful actions.

Edison, a mechanical engineer and Kerala native, was arrested Tuesday in an operation codenamed “MELON” that seized 1,127 LSD blots, 131.66 grams of ketamine, and cryptocurrency belongings value over $82,027 (₹70 lakh), the company tweeted.

The suspect had allegedly been working because the nation’s solely ‘Stage 4’ darknet vendor beneath the moniker “Ketamelon” for the previous two years, in response to reviews in native media.

Edison allegedly sourced medication from world suppliers, laundered proceeds by way of privateness coin Monero (XMR), and shipped narcotics to cities throughout India.

Monero is a privacy-centric crypto designed to masks transaction particulars, making it a most well-liked cost technique for darknet drug sellers and cybercriminals.

In a current weblog, blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis famous that darknet market operators, “have discovered the implications of operating BTC-accepting markets given the foreign money’s transparency,” including that, “Many now settle for solely Monero.”

Chainalysis discovered that whereas 2024 was “doubtless a file yr for crypto crime income general,” inflows to darknet markets and fraud retailers fell, “with DNMs receiving simply over $2 billion in BTC on-chain, and fraud retailers $225 million.”

“Exhausting to develop whole privateness”

Nonetheless, specialists warning that privateness cash aren’t foolproof.

Andrew Fierman, Head of Nationwide Safety Intelligence at Chainalysis, informed Decrypt that “whereas there are considerations of extra criminals transferring to privateness cash for anonymity, the overwhelming majority of prison exercise nonetheless makes use of mainstream cryptocurrencies, similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins.”

He famous these stay interesting to criminals “for a similar causes they enchantment to these utilizing them for official functions: it is cross-border, instantaneous, and liquid.”

However, “It’s extremely arduous to develop whole privateness,” Fierman informed Decrypt. “It isn’t essentially the case that privateness cash are utterly nameless.”

Privateness cash “function on an immutable ledger,” that means “proof of prison transactions will exist eternally,” he mentioned.

The NCB’s bust follows a four-month investigation throughout which authorities tracked Edison’s operations, which allegedly included over 600 drug consignments to cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh.

Native media reported that Edison was “at present the biggest darknet vendor of medication in India,” sourcing narcotics primarily from UK-based vendor “Gunga Din,” believed to be the world’s largest LSD provider.

The company famous that whereas Kerala sometimes sees fewer than 1,000 LSD blots seized yearly, Edison was allegedly distributing round 10,000 LSD blots throughout the nation every month.

The NCB’s operation comes amid a worldwide crackdown on cybercrime infrastructure linked to cryptocurrency.

Simply this week, the U.S. Treasury Division sanctioned Russian internet hosting supplier Aeza Group, accusing it of facilitating ransomware assaults and darknet drug markets that focused victims worldwide.