Binance collaborates with Taiwanese and American law enforcement agencies to assist in dismantling a large drug dark web "Stealth Market".

Binance, the world's largest registered user and trading platform for virtual assets, today revealed that it has teamed up with law enforcement officers in the United States and Taiwan to help crack the "Incognito Market", a major dark web drug market. The site, one of the world's largest drug markets, sold more than $100 million (nearly NT$3 billion) worth of drugs during its operation. Binance's cooperation was an important boost in this international law enforcement operation, helping to successfully disrupt criminal networks and freeze illicit funds worth more than US$3.5 million (about NT$100 million). The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced the results of an international joint sweep code-named Operation RapTor, which targeted dark web activity and the drug trade and set the largest seizure in history. Among them, the "stealth market" was also listed as one of the important achievements of this operation.

In this case, Binance's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) provided important intelligence to law enforcement agencies in Taiwan and the United States, playing a key role not only in assisting law enforcement in investigating the identities of suspects but also freezing virtual assets worth approximately 3.5 million USD, contributing to the dismantling of this large-scale global drug network.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice and public information, the website allows users to anonymously search for and purchase thousands of drugs, including heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. To facilitate transaction convenience, the platform even has its own "banking" system, which is an important part of the website's operation, with virtual assets as the main medium of transaction.

However, despite the fact that the operator set up layers of firewalls to avoid detection, under in-depth investigation by law enforcement officers, they successfully identified the correlation between the virtual asset wallet used in the platform's "bank" system and the wallet address of the website manager, and with a lot of evidence, it was finally confirmed that the actual person in charge behind the website was a suspected criminal surnamed Lin from Taiwan, whose usual pseudonym was "Pharaoh", leading and supervising all operational affairs of the platform. At present, the suspect was arrested last year and has pleaded guilty to US law enforcement, including one count of drug conspiracy, one count of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to sell adulterated and mislabeled drugs.

Nils Andersen-Röed, Global Head of Financial Intelligence at Binance, said: "Despite the meticulous attempts of criminals to evade tracking with various cryptographic technologies, this case once again proves that blockchain is not an illegal place, and the digital footprint left by virtual asset transactions has once again become an important source of intelligence in the fight against crime." Nils emphasized that "in the face of today's increasingly complex virtual asset investigations, such international cooperation and public-private collaboration are no longer an option, but a necessity." Earlier, Binance announced its key role in another Europol-led case of Kidflix, one of the world's largest child exploitation networks, including helping to uncover the inner workings of Kidflix's payment infrastructure and identifying more than 100 Kidflix users. These success stories not only demonstrate Binance's strong commitment to collaborative security, but also demonstrate its strong resources and capabilities in fighting financial crimes and maintaining the security of the virtual asset ecosystem.

About Binance

Binance is the world's leading blockchain ecosystem and the cryptocurrency trading platform with the highest volume and number of registered users globally. Binance is trusted by over 275 million users in more than 100 countries worldwide due to its industry-leading security, transparency, trading engine speed, investor protection measures, and unparalleled portfolio of digital asset products and services. Its service scope covers multiple areas including trading, finance, education, research, charity, payments, institutional services, and Web3 functionalities. Binance is committed to building an inclusive cryptocurrency ecosystem, enhancing financial freedom and broadening financial services globally through cryptocurrency as a core means.

This article discusses how Binance collaborates with law enforcement agencies in Taiwan and the United States to assist in the dismantling of a large drug dark web "Hidden Market," which first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.