Indian man jailed for 5 years for selling drugs on the dark web in America

A 40-year-old Indian citizen from Haldwani in Uttarakhand has been sentenced to five years in prison by a US court for selling illegal drugs on the dark web.

Banmeet Singh (40) was arrested in London in April 2019 at the request of the US.

He was extradited to the United States in March 2023 and pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy charges related to drug distribution and money laundering.

The Dark Web Drug Empire

According to court documents, Singh created vendor marketing sites on dark web marketplacesSuch as Silk Road, Alpha Bay, Hansa, and others, for selling controlled substances, including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, ketamine, and tramadol.

Customers paid with cryptocurrencies for medicines they ordered from Singh using vendor sites. Singh then personally shipped or arranged to ship the drugs from Europe to the United States via US mail or other shipping services.

Investigation revealed that Singh controlled a network of distributors in several US states, including Ohio, Florida and New York.

These distributors received the drugs, repackaged them, and then shipped them to all 50 states as well as internationally to Canada, England, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland, and the United States. Virgin Islands.

Lakhs of drug money were laundered

Singh’s operation has shipped hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs over the years, officials said. This criminal enterprise generated millions of dollars in profits, which were laundered through cryptocurrency accounts. The final value of these laundered funds was estimated to be around $150 million.

“The Singh drug organization has shipped hundreds of kilograms of controlled substances throughout the United States,” the Justice Department said in a press release.