The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a resident of Uttarakhand for allegedly operating an international drug trafficking group, following a request from the U.S. authorities.
Accused Banmeet Singh, a resident of Haldwani, has been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It is alleged that he, along with his brother Parvinder Singh and others, had been operating the drug trafficking syndicate named “Singh DTO (Drug Trafficking Organisation)” .
In April 2019, Banmeet was arrested in London. The U.S. later secured his extradition. This April, a U.S. court sentenced him to five years in prison for selling controlled substances on dark web marketplaces and ordered him to forfeit about $150 million. However, as he had already spent the duration in jail, he was released. Subsequently, he came back to India.
Crypto transactions
The brothers used vendor marketing sites on dark web, numerous free advertisements on clear web websites, and a network of narcotics and controlled-substance distributors and distribution cells, to sell drugs in the U.S., the U.K. and other European countries. “The Singh Organisation received the drug trafficking proceeds through sale on dark web markets, then laundered those proceeds through cryptocurrency transactions,” said the ED.
The accused persons used the moniker “Liston” on a variety of dark web markets, including Silk Road 1, Alpha Bay, and Hansa. “As per information, they received at least 8,088 bitcoins associated with the ‘Liston’ moniker, which is nothing but the proceeds of crime through sale of drugs in various countries. Banmeet Singh has surrendered 3,838 bitcoins (with an equivalent value of ₹2,000 crore) before the U.S. authorities,” it said.
On April 26, the ED raided multiple locations linked to the accused persons and arrested Parvinder the next day. He is currently lodged in Dehradun’s Suddhowala Jail under judicial custody. The agency searched their residence in Haldwani on May 1 and seized 268.22 bitcoins valued about ₹130 crore purportedly at Parvinder’s instance.
In January, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement that Banmeet had pleaded guilty to distributing narcotics and forfeited about $150 million in cryptocurrency. It was alleged that he created vendor marketing sites on dark web marketplaces to sell controlled substances, including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, xanax, ketamine, and tramadol.
“Customers ordered controlled substances from Banmeet Singh using the vendor sites and by paying cryptocurrency. He then personally shipped or arranged the shipment of controlled substances from Europe to the United States through U.S. mail or other shipping services,” it alleged.
“From at least mid-2012 through July 2017, Singh controlled at least eight distribution cells within the U.S., including cells located in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, and Washington, among other locations. Individuals in those distribution cells received drug shipments from overseas and then repackaged and re-shipped the drugs to locations in all 50 States of the U.S., Canada, England, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” the Department of Justice said.
“Banmeet Singh operated a global dark web enterprise to send fentanyl and other deadly and dangerous drugs to communities across America – in all 50 States — as well as Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean,” Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration had said.
Published - May 31, 2024 09:53 pm IST
