{"id":25102,"date":"2025-07-04T11:40:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T08:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/indian-engineer-laundered-drug-proceeds-using-monero\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T11:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T08:40:39","slug":"indian-engineer-laundered-drug-proceeds-using-monero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/indian-engineer-laundered-drug-proceeds-using-monero\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Engineer Laundered Drug Proceeds Using Monero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An engineer in India has been arrested on charges of operating a darknet marketplace. He allegedly used the privacy coin Monero (<a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/monero-zcash-and-dash-how-the-three-privacy-veterans-are-faring\">XMR<\/a>) for money laundering.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">? NCB BUSTS DARKNET KINGPIN \u2013 KETAMELON IN OPS MELON ?<br \/>In a major crackdown, NCB Cochin busted India\u2019s only Level-4 darknet drug vendor, ? KETAMELON ?, seizing:<br \/>? 1,127 LSD blots ?<br \/>? 131.66g Ketamine ?<br \/>? \u20b970 Lakhs in USDT ? (via hardware wallet)<br \/>? Darknet tools: KITES\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KqvfXcw07h\">pic.twitter.com\/KqvfXcw07h<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NCB INDIA (@narcoticsbureau) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/narcoticsbureau\/status\/1940029754016768275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>During Operation MELON, law enforcement detained a 35-year-old engineer named Edison. They seized 1,127 LSD tabs, ketamine, and cryptocurrencies worth over $82,000 from him.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation spanned four months, with authorities tracking Edison&#8217;s operations, which allegedly included over 600 drug shipments to cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/thiruvananthapuram\/ketamelon-busted-ncb-says-indias-biggest-darknet-vendor-of-drugs-arrested-in-kerala-10100651\/\">local media<\/a>, Edison operated for two years under the alias Ketamelon. He was considered the country&#8217;s only Level-4 darknet vendor. The drugs were sourced from a British supplier, Gunga Din, reputed to be the world&#8217;s largest LSD distributor.<\/p>\n<p>For transactions and concealing them, the vendor used XMR. Andrew Firman, head of intelligence at Chainalysis, commented to <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/328432\/indias-most-prolific-darknet-drug-syndicate-used-monero-to-evade-cops\">Decrypt<\/a> that privacy coins do not guarantee complete anonymity. He noted that most criminals still prefer Bitcoin and Ethereum due to their liquidity.<\/p>\n<p>Firman pointed out that confidential assets operate on an immutable ledger, meaning transaction evidence is preserved indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Chainalysis cybercrime researcher Eric Jardine <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/darknet-markets-revert-to-bitcoin-following-monero-delisting-says-chainalysis\">reported<\/a> that darknet marketplaces are reverting to Bitcoin as the primary payment tool following Monero&#8217;s delisting from exchanges.<\/p>\n<p>However, operators of shadow platforms are returning to privacy coins, having realized the implications of using digital gold due to its transparency, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chainalysis.com\/blog\/darknet-markets-2025\/\">analysts noted<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n<p>Back in March, the U.S. Treasury&#8217;s Office of Foreign Assets Control <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-sanctions-target-darknet-marketplace-nemesis-wallets\">added<\/a> 44 Bitcoin and five Monero addresses linked to the closed darknet marketplace Nemesis Market to its sanctions list. Among other activities, the platform distributed illicit substances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An engineer in India has been arrested on charges of operating a darknet marketplace. He allegedly used the privacy coin Monero (XMR) for money laundering. ? NCB BUSTS DARKNET KINGPIN \u2013 KETAMELON IN OPS MELON ?In a major crackdown, NCB Cochin busted India\u2019s only Level-4 darknet drug vendor, ? KETAMELON ?, seizing:? 1,127 LSD blots [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[44,477,278],"class_list":["post-25102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cybercrime","tag-darknet","tag-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"105","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}