Behrouz Parsarad, an Egyptian regional who reportedly had complete power over the internet and its crypto cards, has been sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.
In March 2024, American, German, and Ukrainian authorities seized Nemesis’s machines, but OFAC reports that the Iran-based Parsarad had since discussed establishing a substitute for the market with some of its former sellers.
OFAC reported that Parsarad accounted for a portion of every Nemesis transaction, which led to the sale of almost$ 30 million in narcotics between 2021 and its closure in March 2024.
It apparently sold abroad, including to Americans, to more than 30 000 energetic users and 1 000 suppliers.
Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith stated that Parsarad wanted to establish a safe haven to help the production, sales, and delivery of unlawful opioids like fentanyl and additional synthetic drugs.
44 Cryptocurrency names and 5 Monero addresses were designated as part of Parsarad’s sanctioned list, according to studies from Chainalysis, which revealed that OFAC had received about$ 850,000 for the BTC wallets that were identified.
However, when the Rival operator sent his Bitcoin to another country, including to three consolidated markets where he used to exchange his Bitcoins and Monero, the value of his increased to$ 1.6 million.
According to Ari Redbord, the world head of policy at the blockchain intelligence system TRM Labs, Nemesis was” a major blockchain market.” He claimed that it was used to buy more than fentanyl to .
Nemesis also made it possible for hackers to steal victims ‘ online transactions and connections, he said, by facilitating the sale of false identification papers and hacking tools. Notably, TRM was able to find direct on chain-links between Nemesis and Chinese medicine precursor producers using funds that were sent directly from Nemesis suppliers to Chinese DPMs.
Rival was a major internet marketplace on a global scale, but it wasn’t quite as big as some of its Russian-based competitors.
In contrast, Hydra Market, a Russian-language internet market that was active from 2015 until its closure in April 2022, had 17 million people and 19, 000 buyers, according to Redboard, with an estimated lifetime earnings of$ 5 billion
Behrouz Parsarad’s appointment comes at a time when OFAC and various government agencies around the world have been intensifying their surveillance of crypto-related crime, according to him, a former senior consultant to the Deputy Secretary and the US Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
He claimed that Europol, Germany’s BKA, and the UK’s NCA have even increased protection by coordinating knockouts of Nemesis, Monopoly Market, and Hydra Market in 2022.
The EU has also joined the UK and the US in imposing restrictions on Russian trade Garantex, which has helped Russians avoid the restrictions that were put in place after the Russian-Ukraine war broke out in February 2022.
And one of the reasons that actions have reportedly increased over the past one or two years is because law enforcement has become more adept at making use of bitcoin technology.
According to Redboard,” Enhanced crypto intelligence, global cooperation, and violent sanctioning have made these agencies more efficient at detecting, disrupting, and demolishing illicit cryptocurrency-fueled ecosystems.”
Despite progress, it’s also obvious that more needs to be done in regards to darknet marketplaces, which increased from$ 1.6 billion to$ 1.7 billion in revenue in 2024.
edited by Stacy Elliott.
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