A dark web drug ring, which utilized bitcoin for transactions, was shuttered thanks to the help of an unsuspecting intermediary–Stamps.com
Dark Web Drug Dealers
Two alleged drug dealers were able to sell nearly $9 million worth of fake Adderall for bitcoin using online portals on the dark web. Court filings obtained and published by Quartz on June 27 show that federal agents were able to purchase a fake version of the ADHD prescription medication Adderall via the web portal Dream Market.
The documents name Chinese-born US citizen Tzu Yang “Isaac” Lin and Taiwanese national Meng Ting “Leo” Hu as the perpetrators of the drug ring. Dream Market operated as a Silk Road Lite, the infamous portal closed by FBI agents in 2013, by accepting bitcoin to fuel the anonymous and illicit transactions.
However, the drugs being peddled by Lin and Hu ultimately proved to be counterfeit versions of Adderall and instead only contained methamphetamine.
The two accused men had been operating Dream Market out of Southern California since 2017. According to the court documents, they were able to generate,
“More than 28,000 individual sales on Dream Market alone, and is estimated to have grossed in excess of $8.8 million in sales.”
Stamps.com Assists in Bringing Down Drug Ring
Quartz claims that the drug dealers were using special software to “ensure their anonymity,” while relying upon bitcoin as a less traceable alternative to fiat.
However, Hu was careless in publishing his identity on the postage being used to ship the counterfeit drugs via Stamps.com subsidiary Endicia. The government’s criminal complaint states,
“A review of the postage found on all three of the undercover purchases shows that they are pre-printed postage purchased through Endicia, a subsidiary of Stamps.com. Analysis of the information associated with the Stamps.com account used to ship the parcels containing methamphetamine led Agents to identify [Hu] as the true account holder.”
Following the obtainment of a search warrant, federal agents found over 1.5 kilograms of tablets that were later confirmed to contain methamphetamine.
