Adelaide Hills man arrested over alleged drug trafficking and money laundering on dark web
Police say the man made himself wealthy selling drugs on an online marketplace until they traced the cryptocurrency funding his operation.
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Police have warned online drug dealers they can’t hide behind technology after a 25-year-old Hills man was arrested and accused of running an online trafficking operation.
SA Police say they seized more than $1.5 million in cryptocurrency and a $40,000 diamond ring after foiling the alleged darkweb drug trafficking operation based in the Adelaide Hills.
A 25-year-old man had allegedly been importing drugs from overseas and peddling them on an online market place under the handle DopaminDealer and several different aliases.
He was allegedly selling a variety of illicit drugs including stimulants, hallucinogens as well as opioids known as ‘nitazenes’.
An $80,000 car and approximately $10,000 in cash were also claimed as proceeds of crime.
Officer in charge of Financial and Cybercrime Investigation Branch Detective Superintendent Adam Rice warned dealers that they were not anonymous on the dark web.
“Police are investigating online platforms and will continue to bring people before the courts for criminal offending in these environments,” he said.
Police said they had monitored the man’s actions since March 2023 before searching a home and two storage units in the Adelaide Hills between September 20 and 22.
Customers were able to place drug orders using cryptocurrency while the vendor would prepare the shipments from one of the storage units, police said.
In a statement on Thursday, SA Police said they recovered “a large quantity of illicit drugs, cash, cryptocurrency, electronic devices” in their investigation.
“Other evidence used in conjunction with the offending and a quantity of property believed to be proceeds of crime and evidence of money laundering,” they said.
The 25-year-old was arrested and remanded in custody on September 20 and is scheduled to appear in court at a later date.
The arrest comes after a newly established task force called Operation Reveal was formed by SA Police’s Cybercrime Investigation Branch with the aim of cracking down on drug traffickers operating through the dark web.
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