Three Dark Web Drug Dealers Arrested After Laundering $2.3 Million In Bitcoin Across 43 States

The Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., together with the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, have arrested three men who were accused of selling drugs and laundering money on the dark web using Bitcoin.

Jarrete Codd, Chester Anderson and Ronald MacCarty were all arrested as co-conspirators for selling counterfeit Xanax online for buyers in 43 states and for laundering over $2.3 million USD in money using preloaded debit cards and withdrawing cash from ATMs.

The investigators discovered the crimes by making a series of undercover purchases of illegal merchandise and using Bitcoin to pay for it. After that, they got a court-ordered warrant and seized a large number of drugs.

According to the press release, the trio had a big shipment of drugs, the biggest ever seized in New Jersey. This included several substances which can cause damages to health like methamphetamine, heroin and alprazolam pills, as well as Xanax. Equipment to manufacture drugs was also seized during the operation.

The trio were charged with money laundering and with 4th and 5th charges of conspiracy. One of them, Anderson, was also charged with criminal sales of controlled substances and even for identity theft as well.

Anderson got more charges than his companions because he was the one in charge of dealing with the two stores and he personally sold the drugs. The other two were more focused on producing the drugs on their base and to get the gear for the job.

A shell company was even created to purchase some of the material and to hide it from the police, as well as to help with the money laundering.

This was the first time, according to the press release, that investigators were able to take down a dark web operation. They also boasted at how the team was able to track down criminals and to hold them accountable for their crimes at the press release. They used the help of a company called Cyber Lab to trace the money and to discover who was using it.

Don’t Use Bitcoin For Criminal Activities

You should not engage with criminal behavior in any case, but using Bitcoin to do it is simply a very bad idea. Bitcoin is actually fairly easy to track if you have a well-equipped company on your side, so you will leave a trail that you may not know how to cover if you use it. This is why most criminals tend to use privacy coins like Monero (and why the authorities hate them so much).

A valuable lesson has been learned by the three drug dealers. Don’t use Bitcoin to launder money on the dark web or you will end up in jail, at least that is our take on this one.