- The FBI has arrested two brothers from California who became rich by selling drugs on the dark web.
- The two were also selling through encrypted communications apps and were sending the stuff in the form of counterfeit pills.
- The police have managed to intercept their communications on WhatsApp and iMessage.
Two brothers named Khlari and Sasha Sirotkin have been arrested by the FBI for running a dark web drug empire that according to the reports have made them over $2.8 million in illicit sales. Their drug operation was named “Pill Cosby”, and the federal investigators have been following its activity for an extensive period of time. What they discovered is that the two brothers and another three persons who had a secondary role were selling fentanyl, cocaine, and crystal meth on various darknet marketplaces such as the Dream Market, Silk Road 3.1, and Wall Street.
Besides the dark web, where the brothers managed to carry out thousands of deals, they also used the “Wickr” encrypted communications app that is popular among journalists, activists, and anyone who wants to protect their privacy. The prosecutors claim that there were at least 85 individuals hanging out on the group created by the brothers on Wickr, waiting to place their narcotic orders. In both fields (dark web and Wickr), the payments were being done in cryptocurrency, and the delivery of the drugs was done in the form of laced counterfeit pills.
By following the brothers’ moves in Coinbase, the FBI figured that they also used their mother’s name and her Amazon account but no charges against her have been placed. The crew was brought down after the feds placed drug orders and followed the packages and payments to see where the money ends up and where the boxes start from. An interesting detail is that the police could also intercept the crew’s communications on WhatsApp and iMessage, though they are not saying how they did it. As for the customers, some of them have also been tracked and identified, so more arrests will follow soon.
These are the dangers of the dark web, a place where you can trust no one and where everything is smoke and mirrors. If you want to learn more about how buying works on the dark web, check out this piece. If you’re curious about how to access it, then this guide will help you. And if you want to learn how you can roam the streets of the darknet with relative safety, then check out this guide. Remember, we never suggest that you use illicit services or buy goods on the dark web, but you may access it to find other interesting stuff like information that’s nowhere to be found on the clearnet. It’s a cool place to visit, but you need to be careful and take safety precautions.