U.S. authorities have arrested 35 dark web sellers following an operation that traced bitcoin laundering activities back to sellers involved in illicit transactions.

The operation was led by the U.S. Department of Justice in conjunction with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

It included the use of undercover agents targeting sellers of illicit goods on the dark web, sometimes called not entirely accurately the darknet. Either way, in an attempt to remain anonymous, the culprits are using a shady portion of the internet that requires special software to reach.

Those agents in many cases posed as money launderers on dark websites, accepting cryptocurrency payments in return for U.S. dollars, specifically bitcoin. Because of bitcoin’s public nature, those payments can be traced. By both offering cash and accepting bitcoin, agents identified vendors of illicit goods, leading to more than 90 active criminal cases.

Markets targeted in the raid include Silk Road 2, AlphaBay, Hansa, Wall Street and Dream, representing a cross-section of the major markets following the closure of the original Silk Road, which once dominated the dark web.

Along with those arrested, authorities seized drugs, more than 100 weapons including a grenade launcher, $3.6 million in gold and cash and 2,000 bitcoins worth $12,240 as of today. The drugs included 333 bottles of synthetic opioids, more than 100,000 tramadol pills, 100 grams of fentanyl, more than 24 kilos of Xanax and unspecified amounts of Oxycodone, MDMA, cocaine, LSD, marijuana and, to top it off, an entire psychedelic mushroom farm.

In addition, authorities seized cryptocurrency mining equipment and vehicles, mining being an apparently popular second income stream for many of those arrested.

“Criminals who think that they are safe on the Darknet are wrong,” Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement. “We can expose their networks, and we are determined to bring them to justice … This nationwide enforcement effort will reduce the supply of deadly drugs like fentanyl that are killing an unprecedented number of Americans.”

Targeting sellers over marketplaces is a shift in focus for law enforcement agencies, which have finally worked out that closing one marketplace is like playing whack-a-mole because others will immediately pop up. “When we take down a dark web marketplace, these criminals will move to other marketplaces,” HSI Special Agent in Charge Angel Melendez said at a press conference. “So the focus of this operation was really the bad actors, the people utilizing the darknet to sell drugs.”

Photo: servicesphere/Flickr