The alleged administrator of Bitcoin Fog kept the dark web service running for 10 years ahead of the IRS trapped with him.For ten years, Bitcoin Fog has agreed to obscure the origin and destination of its customers’cryptocurrency, rendering it one of the very most venerable institutions in the dark web economy. Now the IRS says it’s finally identified the Russian-Swedish administrator behind that long-running anonymizing system and charged him with laundering hundreds of countless dollars worth of bitcoins, much of that was delivered to or from dark web drug markets. What gave him away? The trail of their own decade-old digital transactions.

Feds Dismantled the Dark Web Drug Trade—but It’s Already Rebuilding

After recent high-profile dark-web drug market takedowns, new vendors already are filling the void.On the dark-web drug market WorldMarket this week, business proceeds as usual. “Satisfied customer, is going to be back, ” writes one user on the merchandise page of a meth dealer with the handle shardyshardface. “Excellent, ” reads a plaudit posted with a buyer of the opiate oxycodone. “Bravo, ” says another for a $5 sample of fentanyl, certainly one of 18 reviews posted on the product’s profile page within the last few week. In all, Empire lists over 18, 000 narcotic offerings, including hundreds for oxycodone alone.