US: Indian national from Haldwani found guilty of darknet drug scheme, $150 million worth of cryptocurrencies confiscated

An Indian national extradited from the UK has admitted running a global darknet business selling “deadly and dangerous drugs to communities across the United States”.

Banmeet Singh, 40, from Haldwani in Uttarakhand state, agreed to forfeit about $150 million in cryptocurrency, according to court documents. The U.S. Department of Justice said in a Jan. 26 press release that Singer created vendor marketing websites on dark web markets that sold controlled substances, including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, ketamine and tramadol.

Customers ordered controlled substances from Singer using the supplier’s website and paying via cryptocurrency. Singer then personally shipped or arranged for shipment of the drugs from Europe to the United States via U.S. mail or other shipping services. “Banmeet Singh and drug traffickers like him thought they could operate anonymously on the dark web and evade prosecution… Today’s guilty pleas, including the forfeiture of approximately $150 million in cryptocurrency, demonstrate that the Department of Justice will hold criminals who violate U.S. law accountable, regardless of What happened and how they concealed their activities,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

From mid-2012 to July 2017, Singer controlled at least eight distribution units in the United States, including distribution units in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, and Washington. unit. Personnel in these distribution groups receive drugs from overseas, then repackage and reship the drugs to locations in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the release said.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Director Anne Milgram said Banmeet Singh ran a global darknet enterprise that targeted all 50 U.S. states as well as Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. Community delivery of fentanyl and other deadly and dangerous drugs. Throughout the course of the conspiracy, Singer moved hundreds of kilograms of controlled substances across the United States and established a multimillion-dollar drug enterprise, laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds into cryptocurrency accounts ultimately worth approximately $150 million. In April 2019, Singh was arrested in London, and the United States secured his extradition in 2023.

Singer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces an agreed-upon eight years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. A federal district court judge will make any sentence after considering U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.