A darknet dealer who sold drugs for crypto will forfeit $2.3 million in Bitcoin, and just got sentenced to 8 years in prison after selling drugs for crypto on the dark web so let’s read more in today’s latest Bitcoin news.
Binh Thanh Le of Brockton Massachusetts was sentenced to 8 years in prison and will forfeit $2.3 million worth of BTC after starting the “EastSideHigh” darknet market. The US Attorney Rachael Rollins said:
“This sentence sends a clear message to Dark Web criminals: the federal government is entering this space. We will find you and we will hold you accountable. Thanks to the incredible work of our law enforcement colleagues, there is one less cybercriminal hiding in the shadows.”
Following his prison sentence, the darknet dealer will be supervised upon release for three years further. Le started his platform when he was 22 years old and started selling drugs like ecstasy, ketamine, and Xanax. His illicit businesses generated him a profit of 59 Bitcoins that were initially seized back in March 2019 and the reports now suggest that the seized BTC is being forfeited. At the time, the funds were worth up to $200,000 but today they are worth shy of $2 million.
In addition to the funds, Le held over $114,000 in cash and $42,000 from the sale of a used vehicle. In 2019, Le was indicted with two other individuals for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute drugs, and the law enforcement at that time encountered over 44 pounds of ecstasy and about 10,000 Xanax pills. Because of the censorship resistance of crypto, they are often linked to darknet legal cases.
Back in 2021, Maryland’s Xanaxman drug dealer, Ryan Farace, was also found to continue dealing while in prison and resulting in forfeiture of 4000 BTC in November 2018. Three days before Christmas in 2021, Khuran Iqbal got jailed for trading crypto on the dark web and in 2014 he was jailed for disseminating terrorist publications and owning some terrorist information.
Also, The US authorities seized $28 million worth of crypto was seized in connection with the former Canadian government employee Sebastien Vachon Desjardins and got extradited to the US on charges related to the Netwalker ransomware. As per the DOJ, Vachon was charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and wire fraud, damage to a protected computer, and transmitting a demand in relation to damaging the protected computer arising from the alleged participation in Netwalker.
