Agents undercover on the dark web for nearly two years, seized 2,000 Bitcoins

According to Cointelegraph, agents from the U.S. Department of Justice conducted an undercover operation in the Darknet for nearly two years and arrested 35 criminals. The operation seized BTC mining equipment, nearly 2,000 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, and about $3.6 million worth of fiat currency and gold bars, totaling about $23.6 million.

The dark web is a type of Internet that uses non-standard communication protocols and ports. One of its main purposes is to make it difficult to track information providers and those who access information. Due to its high concealment, it attracts many criminals and those who are interested in black market activities.

It is understood that the Department of Justice arrested a criminal suspect who used cryptocurrency for illegal transactions on the dark web in 2016. The Department of Justice agents used his name to open an online account "UC vendor accounts" on the dark web to provide money laundering services. Customers who need to launder money can transfer illegal cryptocurrency income into this account, and the agents will convert it into US dollars and then transfer it to the customer's other bank accounts. In this last link, the customer undoubtedly exposed his information.

Since the agents were able to launder money quickly, clients began to advertise "UC vendor accounts" on the dark web in January 2017. Subsequently, some clients with large cryptocurrency holdings began to appear and request services, which alerted the agents. After verification, some clients were indeed illegal vendors.

The agents disguised themselves as illegal suppliers and followed the clues to find layers of illegal agents, thus destroying the entire illegal trading chain in one fell swoop.

“Since there are few ways for illicit dealers to get their hands on cash, posing as cryptocurrency launderers seems to be a good way to find them,” said Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

The investigation has resulted in 90 active cases being investigated by the Department of Justice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Kenneth Jenkins, assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service, said they will continue to "work" with the remaining criminals to take down more criminals.

The FBI has revealed that it is also conducting 130 cryptocurrency-related investigations, including crimes such as human trafficking, trafficking of illegal drugs, kidnapping, and ransomware attacks.

Currently, there are more drug transactions on the dark web, and there has been a significant increase in extortion cases related to cryptocurrency on the southwest border of the United States. The FBI believes that due to the anonymity of cryptocurrency, which makes it impossible for programs to access certain devices, illegal activities on the Internet are rampant.

At this year's budget hearing, the FBI requested $63 million to improve its technical capabilities to deal with illegal activities on the Internet. Today, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the HR6069 bill to prevent people from illegally using cryptocurrencies, and lawmakers hope that Congress will legislate as soon as possible to combat these crimes.