Matthew Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement that U.S. officials worked with German and Lithuanian law enforcement to seize servers and other infrastructure in order to shut down Nemesis Market in March 2024. According to a Justice Department indictment, the 36-year-old Tehran native launched Nemesis Market in March 2021 and allegedly processed more than 400,000 orders through 2024 that included fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and more. “Nemesis Market, through the darknet, was a borderless powerhouse of criminal activity that not only fueled the drug epidemic, but also a multitude of illegal acts with the capacity to harm our citizens and destroy our communities,” FBI Cleveland Acting Special Agent in Charge Charles Johnston added. Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad was charged by a federal grand jury on Tuesday for his role in founding and running a well-known dark web marketplace used to sell drugs and cybercriminal services. Government agents purchased drugs off of Nemesis Market and used labs to confirm that they were mixtures containing fentanyl and other dangerous substances. Nemesis Market had more than 150,000 users and about 1,100 vendor accounts that offered an array of drugs, stolen financial information, fraudulent identification documents, counterfeit currencies and malware. Parsarad allegedly had full control of the marketplace and all of its virtual currency wallets, earning money from fees he charged for each transaction made on the site. The Treasury Department believes Parsarad made millions from the site and from laundering cryptocurrencies on behalf of trackers and cybercriminals. Parsarad has been charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and distribution of controlled substances as well as money laundering conspiracy. Last month, the Treasury Department sanctioned Parsarad, noting that he has tried to reestablish the platform since it was taken down last year.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:10:14 +0000