TL;DR Breakdown
- Notorious drug lord nabbed in India for BTC transactions
- US jails illegal Bitcoin ATM operator
Crypto King, a notorious drug criminal has been arrested in India for paying for hard drugs with Bitcoin both locally and internationally on the Darknet.
Crypto king is a pseudo name for Makarand Pardeep Adivirkar, arrested by India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) during the week. He notoriously imported hard drugs from Europe and peddled them across states in India.
According to the NCB, crypto king operated on the notorious Darknet, where numerous outlaws trade illegal substances like drugs and weapons.
He also received cash payment for illegal goods and provided Bitcoin on marginal profit using his wallet to purchase these drugs.
Per the authority’s investigation, they found 20 LSD blots in Kharodi Village, Malad. The Director of the Mumbai Unit of NCB – Sameer Wankhede – informed that the “Crypto King” has connections with European drug dealers as he bought the narcotics from Europe.
The authority has said it will carry out further investigation on the suspect as it is still not certain the punishment the suspect would face.
Beyond crypto king, another crypto criminal apprehended
Outside the notorious drug lord, recently authorities nabbed another suspect, Kais Mohammed, who was processing around $25 million worth of BTC illegally.
Mohammed lived in the expensive part of Los Angeles Orange County would be cooling off in prison for the next two years. His crime was operating illegal Bitcoin ATMs.
Mohammed’s nickname was Superman 29 he said he was guilty of money laundering, operating illegal Bitcoin ATMs and other charges at the court.
Mohammad was the leader of the illegal digital currency money services business – Herocoin – from December 2014 to November 2019. He offered Bitcoin-to-cash exchange services, charging fees of up to 25 percent – significantly above the usual market rate.
Most people who patronized Mohammed were criminals, which he was aware of, but he never queried the source of their funds.
