COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — A man has pleaded guilty to trafficking hundreds of kilograms of drugs in Columbus and across the United States using the dark web, a criminal enterprise that led to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the federal agency’s history.
Banmeet Singh, 40, of India, pleaded guilty in the U.S. Southern District of Ohio on Friday on charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Singh coordinated the sale of LSD, fentanyl, MDMA, Xanax and other controlled substances using dark web marketplaces, sending the drugs through the mail in exchange for cash, money orders and cryptocurrency.
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Along with pleading guilty, Singh forfeited more than $150 million in cryptocurrency accounts, mostly Bitcoin, the largest single digital asset seizure in the DEA’s history.
“No amount of planning or attempts to conceal illegal activities will render them beyond the discovery of law enforcement and good, investigatory work,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Kenneth Parker said at a news conference Friday.