An Indian national has been sentenced in the United States to five years in prison in connection with a dark web drug enterprise that extended to Canada, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Banmeet Singh, from the northern Indian town of Haldwani, was arrested in the United Kingdom in April 2019 at the request of U.S. officials and was extradited to the United States last year, the news release said. In January of this year, Singh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, as well as conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.
According to the US Department of Justice statement, which cites court documents and statements, Singh is described as creating multiple online retail spaces for drugs, including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, ketamine and tramadol, paid for through cryptocurrencies supplied by customers and delivered by mail.
Singh’s involvement in the company is said to have lasted “from at least mid-2012 to July 2017,” tied to eight distribution points within the United States. From there, the DOJ statement says, shipments were repackaged and sent across the country, as well as to Canada and other countries, including Jamaica, Ireland and even back to the United Kingdom.
“The Singh drug organization moved hundreds of kilograms of controlled substances throughout the United States and established a multimillion-dollar pharmaceutical company that laundered millions of dollars of drug profits into cryptocurrency accounts, which ultimately came to be worth approximately (U.S. .) 150 million dollars,” the statement reads. read.
In addition to the five-year sentence, the Justice Department notes that Singh has been ordered to forfeit approximately $150 million.
The investigation preceding the case involved local and national law enforcement agencies, including the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, Upper Arlington and Columbus, Ohio, police departments and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency.