A US citizen from Uttarakhand is sentenced to five years in prison for operating a $150 million drug empire on the dark web

Indian native Banmeet Singh was found guilty of selling illegal narcotics, such as LSD, Ecstasy, and fentanyl, via dark web markets. He was sentenced to five years in prison and compelled to pay nearly $150 million.

At the US’s request, Singh, an Indian citizen who lives in Haldwani in the state of Uttarakhand, was detained in London in April 2019 and extradited in March 2023. Singh entered a guilty plea in January of this year to charges of conspiring to launder money and possessing controlled drugs with the purpose of distributing them.

In order to sell prohibited narcotics, including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, ketamine, and tramadol, Banmeet established vendor marketing sites on dark web marketplaces like Silk Road, Alpha Bay, Hansa, and others, according to court records and testimony presented in court.

Customers used the vendor sites to purchase medications from Singh and pay with bitcoin. Subsequently, Singh personally organized or sent the medications from Europe to the US via US mail or other delivery methods.

Singh was in charge of at least eight US distribution cells between July 2017 and December 2012; these cells were dispersed across Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, North Dakota, and Washington, among other states.

The Department of Justice stated on Friday that people in these distribution cells received drug shipments, repackaged them, and reshipped them to destinations in all 50 states, Canada, England, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland, and the US Virgin Islands.

An official release stated that during the conspiracy, the Singh drug organization transported hundreds of kilograms of controlled substances across the United States and set up a multimillion dollar drug business that laundered millions of dollars’ worth of drug proceeds into cryptocurrency accounts, which were eventually valued at about USD 150 million.