Darknet drug racket traded in hard-to-track crypto, says Kerala NCB
The central agency's investigation into the operations of 35-year-old Edison, an engineer by profession, revealed that he managed the drug network single-handedly and shipped over 600 consignments of LSD blots and ketamine clandestinely across India.
Edison used Monero, commonly known as XMR, to procure LSD and ketamine from abroad and also to sell it, the NCB probe revealed. 'Monero is an untraceable cryptocurrency widely used by terrorist outfits and international drug syndicates for moving money. Unlike Bitcoin, it leaves no transaction trail, making it extremely difficult to track. Edison was using Monero to source drugs from the UK and sell them to people who placed orders on the darknet,' a source told TNIE.
On Wednesday, the value of Monero stood at Rs 27,177. A cryptocurrency expert who wished to remain anonymous said Monero is traded under the symbol XMR. Although people can buy and sell Monero in India, it is preferred by criminals due to its confidential nature. Monero is used worldwide for illicit activities such as money laundering, darknet markets, ransomware, cryptojacking, and other organised crimes.
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