Hyderabad drugs case: Drug freeze by tracking banking trail on Darknet

HYDERABAD: Though peddlers arrested by excise sleuths brought drugs over Darknet to evade being caught, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sleuths told investigators that offenders can still be strangled financially. Even suppliers abroad can be brought to book by analysing technical evidence seized from offenders.
After excise sleuths arrested peddlers buying drugs over Darknet, NCB and directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) sleuths offered to assist excise investigators.Senior officials of NCB came to Hyderabad and met excise enforcement director Akun Sabharwal.
Excise sleuths exchanged evidence with their NCB counterparts and made them aware of the findings in the cases so far. As most offenders arrested by excise officials procured drugs over Darknet, NCB sleuths focused on the subject.
“Despite the offenders using Darknet to procure drugs, they often leave a trail. Using that information, we will try to zero in on the absconding accused,“ said an NCB official.
In the recent arrests, Pi yush Auluck used his ICICI Bank account to make online payment for drugs. The amount was sent to Fedor Bank's account in Germany, which is operated by Bash Ltd, a Moscow-based firm.
So, the enforcement agencies can write to ICICI Bank to freeze Auluck's account and also the law enforcement agencies of Germany and Russia to freeze the supplier's bank accounts and, if possible, arrest the person.
While Piyush used his bank account to pay for purchase of drugs, other arrested offenders like Anish Dundoo used Bitcoins.“Peddlers like Anish, who are well versed with Darknet and crypto currency, used Bitcoins to purchase drugs,“ an SIT official said.
“In such cases where payments were done using Bitcoins, we will write to concerned Bitcoin Exchange to freeze the account of the offender,“ said an NCB source.
The NCB officials said that in several cases people who scour through Darknet looking for drugs get duped.Many people posing as sellers dupe people by collecting money and not sending the promised items. The victims cannot even lodge a complaint as the entire set up is illegal.
Excise sleuths are analysing the laptop and cell phone data of the offenders to identify the bank transaction details and details of the offenders.