A 33-year-old man from Serbia has been extradited from Austria to the United States to face charges of running a criminal darknet narcotics marketplace called "Monopoly Market."
According to a U.S. Department of Justice announcement, the suspect, Milomir Desnica, is charged with facilitating $18 million in illegal drug transactions through his website.
The suspect was arrested in Austria in November 2022 and indicted on July 26, 2022, with the Department of Justice announcing the charges last Friday.
Desnica now faces one count for conspiracy to distribute and possess methamphetamine and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Monopoly Market
The Monopoly market was a dark web marketplace launched in 2019 to sell illegal narcotic substances, including opioids, psychedelics, stimulants, and prescription medications.
The DOJ says Desnica personally verified each registered vendor to ensure they hold the illegal substances they claimed to sell, even asking them to produce photographic evidence of their inventory.
FBI's Hi-Tech Opioid Task Force placed several orders on the market, totaling 100 grams of methamphetamine, proving the validity of the products sold on the website.
Desnica allegedly used at least two cryptocurrency exchange services between April 2020 and July 2022 to obscure the trace, launder his crime proceeds, and then sell the cryptocurrency to Serbian p2p traders for fiat money.
In December 2021, U.S. investigators seized Monopoly Market's hosting server with the help of cyber police forces in Germany and Finland.
"Through analysis of the seized server, law enforcement identified records of the narcotics sales facilitated by Monopoly, financial records documenting cryptocurrency payments on Monopoly, an online forum associated with Monopoly, communications from the Monopoly operator to vendors, commission payment invoices, and more." explains Department of Justice announcement.
In May 2023, an international law enforcement operation codenamed 'SpecTor' arrested 288 vendors of the Monopoly market and seized €50.8 million ($55.9M) in cash and cryptocurrency.
These arrests were made possible by analyzing data retrieved from Monopoly's server, exposing buyers and sellers active on the platform.
"Through extensive analysis of these records, Desnica was identified as the operator of Monopoly," reads the DOJ announcement.
Now, Desnica faces the prospect of a life sentence, the maximum penalty for distributing methamphetamine, while the money laundering charge carries a maximum term of 20 years.
If convicted, Desnica will also have to forfeit any property linked to his criminal activity, derived or obtained directly or indirectly from darknet drug sales.
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