Dark web drug lords busted, raise $7.2 million in crypto exchanges

Subway

exclusive

Of Elizabeth Rosner

February 17, 2023 | 1:35 p.m

One of the largest dark web drug deals ever — raking in $7.2 million through cryptocurrency exchanges — has been shut down and the Queens ringleader and four others have been charged, Manhattan prosecutors said.

In an indictment unsealed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court, prosecutors alleged leader Nan Wu of Queens and his accomplices — including a U.S. Postal Service employee — ran a dark web marketplace called FireBunnyUSA that shipped more than 10,000 packages of cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and other drugs. to customers in all 50 states and Washington, DC.

The drug dealers allegedly laundered $7.2 million, including over $3.1 million in profits, through cryptocurrency exchanges, prosecutors charged.

Named in the indictment along with Wu were accomplices Peng Peng Tang, Bowen Chen, Zixiang Lin and USPS employee Katie Montgomery.

“This alleged scheme was a brazen attempt to use the dark web to hide a national drug trafficking operation. “While this activity originated on the dark web, it can still lead to the same dangerous drug-related violence in our neighborhoods that we see all too often,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.

Operating from multiple dark web marketplaces from January 2019 to August 2022, FireBunny described itself as an “old-time provider with the best in QUALITY SPEED OF DELIVERY and STEALTH.”

Wu, 35, originally based the business in Flushing, where more than 10,000 packages were shipped. In April 2022, he moved the business to Upland, California.

Shipments went across the country and to Manhattan.

Between June 2021 and August 2022, undercover Manhattan DA investigators made 11 purchases from FireBunny, including cocaine, MDMA and ketamine, which were shipped to Manhattan, prosecutors said.

Wu’s team helped ship the packages by purchasing shipping materials and renting U-Hauls and storage facilities, prosecutors said.

Investigators executed a search warrant at Wu’s Flushing apartment in July 2022, when he was arrested and taken into federal custody on an open warrant for prior drug charges, prosecutors said.

In total, the group raised nearly $8 million in bitcoin revenue. Investigators also found
nearly $900.00 worth of cryptocurrency on Tang’s phone.

Some of the money Wu and others received was laundered by converting Monero – a form of anonymized cryptocurrency.

Montgomery — a Maine resident who surrendered to authorities and was accused of providing advice on importing drugs into the United States and checking the status of the packages — pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Friday morning and was released.

Tang, Chen and Lin were expected to be arraigned on Friday afternoon. Wu will be arraigned at an unspecified later date.