Representational.
The Enforcement Directorate announced on Saturday that it had seized cryptocurrency worth more than ₹130 crore and arrested a man from Uttarakhand as part of a money laundering investigation initiated at the request of US authorities.
Parvinder Singh was apprehended on April 27 from Haldwani in Nainital district following a search of his premises.
According to the central probe agency, Singh agreed to surrender the proceeds earned from the sale of illegal drugs through the dark web.
Most of these sales were conducted in European countries. The investigation was launched based on a mutual legal assistance request received from US authorities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, invoking a specific section related to cross-border offences corresponding to the NDPS Act.
Singh and his brother, along with others, were allegedly operating an international drug trafficking group known as the "Singh DTO." The organization utilized vendor marketing sites on the dark web, as well as free advertisements on the clear web, to distribute drugs in the US, UK, and other European countries.
The agency claimed that the Singh organization received proceeds from drug trafficking through cryptocurrency transactions.
During the search operation, bitcoins with a value of ₹130.48 crore were seized. The brothers allegedly used the moniker "Liston" on dark web markets like "Silk Road 1," "Alpha Bay," and "Hansa" to conduct their illegal activities. The bitcoins associated with the 'Liston' moniker were identified as proceeds of crime from the illegal sale of drugs in various countries.
The agency stated that US authorities had already seized bitcoins valued at thousands of crores of rupees.