Indian Engineer Launders Drug Money Using Monero on Darknet Marketplace

An engineer has been arrested in India on charges of operating a dark web marketplace. He allegedly used the privacy coin Monero (XMR) for money laundering purposes.

As part of Operation MELON, authorities apprehended a 35-year-old engineer named Edison. Officials seized 1,127 LSD stamps, ketamine, and cryptocurrencies valued at over $82,000.

The investigation lasted four months, during which law enforcement tracked Edison’s activities, believed to involve over 600 drug deliveries to cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh.

According to local media, Edison operated under the alias Ketamelon for two years. He was recognized as the only «level four» dark web vendor in the country, sourcing narcotics from a British supplier named Gunga Din, who is considered one of the largest LSD distributors globally.

To process payments and obscure transactions, Edison utilized XMR. Andrew Firman, head of intelligence at Chainalysis, noted in a comment to Decrypt that while privacy coins offer some level of anonymity, they do not guarantee complete secrecy. He pointed out that many criminals still prefer Bitcoin and Ethereum due to their liquidity.

Firman also reminded that confidential assets operate on an immutable ledger, meaning transaction evidence is permanently recorded.

In March, Chainalysis cybercrime researcher Eric Jardin reported that dark web marketplaces were returning to Bitcoin as their primary payment method following the delisting of Monero from exchanges.

However, operators of these shadowy platforms are shifting back to privacy coins, having realized the implications of using the transparent digital asset, as analysts from the firm noted in May.

It is worth mentioning that on March 4, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added 44 Bitcoin and five Monero addresses related to the now-defunct dark web marketplace Nemesis Market to its sanctions list. This platform was known for distributing illegal substances, among other activities.