Australian Vendor "DopamineDealer" Busted
According to South Australia Police (SAPOL), the 25-year-old man from Adelaide used multiple vendor profiles on dark web marketplaces, including the profiles, "DrugsRus" and "DopamineDealer" on Abacus market, to distribute a variety of drugs, including the opiod, nitazene throughout Australia.
Investigators from the SAPOL's Cybercrime Investigation Section launched investigations into DopamineDealer's drug trafficking operation in early 2023 under an operation dubbed Operation Reveal.
The investigators were allegedly able to link the 25-year-old to cryptocurrency associated with the vendor profiles. The investigators established that he acquired the drugs in bulk and stored them in a storage unit from where he packaged them according to the orders he received.
The investigators arrested the 25-year-old suspect on September 20 and took over his vendor accounts. They also executed search warrants at his residence and two storage units associated with the drug trafficking operation.
The searches resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of drugs, including approximately 5 kilograms of nitazene. They also seized electronic devices, approximately $1.5 million in cryptocurrency, and tens of thousands in cash.
Items seized from the searches
The suspect was charged with 19 counts of drug trafficking, five counts of trafficking in a commercial quantity of a controlled drug, money laundering, and possession of prescribed equipment.
He was remanded in custody pending trial.
Comments (17)
Icarus2023-10-060c69c745
Damn. Too big too fast. That's impressive for a 25 year old kid to be up in the the multi-millions. $1.5m in crypto, plus all the cash & product (assuming they found it all). I didn't see any co-conspirators mentioned, damn son. At that age you feel invincible, with the funds & making those level moves he might as well have been. I respect the numbers for a 25yr old in Australia, but somewhere that boy had to realize he was in way too deep. Probably not til the door was kicked in... He'll be inside 25 years from now and it'll all be almost too surreal to remember.
Oni-chan2023-10-1432b66036
would that really have saved him? Im a newbie and i asking myself if xmr is really fixing all risks for buyers
DarkNet Diaries Fan2023-12-01772c86ec
Watch the Darknet Diaries on Youtube - they go over all of the different ways people slip up and get busted....also how not to. Good interviews with current and past vendors as well as hackers , opsec , pen testers etc. Actually an informative podcast!
Derp2023-10-0653b5b833
I assume they were able to use blockchain analysis to connect his dark web account to his commercial account. I'm betting Bitcoin. Should have used Monero or a whirlpool.