Indian sentenced for five years for selling controlled substance on dark web

PTI, Apr 20, 2024, 9:20 AM IST

A 40-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to five years in prison for selling controlled substances on dark web marketplaces and ordered to forfeit approximately USD 150 million.

Banmeet Singh, of Haldwani, was arrested in April 2019 in London at the request of the US.

He was extradited to the US in March 2023. In January, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to the court documents and in statements made in court, Banmeet created vendor marketing sites on dark web marketplaces, such as Silk Road, Alpha Bay, Hansa, and others, to sell controlled substances, including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, ketamine, and tramadol.

Customers paid with cryptocurrency for drugs ordered from Singh using the vendor sites. Singh then personally shipped or arranged the shipment of the drugs from Europe to the United States through US mail or other shipping services.

From 2012 through July 2017, Singh controlled at least eight distribution cells within the US, including cells located in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, and Washington, among other locations.

Individuals in these distribution cells received drug shipments and then re-packaged and re-shipped the drugs to locations in all 50 states, Canada, England, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland, and the US Virgin Islands, the Department of Justice said on Friday.

Over the course of the conspiracy, the Singh drug organisation moved hundreds of kilograms of controlled substances throughout the United States and established a multimillion-dollar drug enterprise that laundered millions of dollars of drug proceeds into cryptocurrency accounts, which ultimately became worth approximately USD150 million, an official release said.