A Moscow court has ordered the seizure of the crypto wallet of one of the alleged administrators of the darknet market Hydra. However, media reports revealed that the man, who was arrested in Russia in mid-April, has refused to share access to his presumed crypto stash with Russian law enforcement agencies.
Investigators failed to obtain the cryptocurrency of the hydra market operator
Russian judicial authorities want to confiscate what they believe is a record amount of cryptocurrency from a drug dealer’s crypto wallet, the business daily Kommersant reported this week, citing aposton the Telegram news channel Mash.
The crypto stash belongs to the alleged co-founder and administrator of Hydra, perhaps the largest online marketplace on the Dark Web, which was shut down by Germany not long ago.
Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov is a 30-year-old businessman from Cherepovets who was detained last month on a warrant from Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court and charged with producing, selling, and distributing drugs under Russian criminal law.
His arrest came shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice announcedcriminal charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and conspiracy to launder moneyagainst a Russian national with the same name.
According to reports, Pavlov’s wallet was seized under court order and investigators believe hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency is in storage. Whether the state has access to the coins, however, is another matter.
The owner has refused to give Russian authorities access to his wallet, and the exact amount of digital currency stored there has yet to be established.Kommersant revealed that, in addition to the crypto wallet, Pavlov has been otherwise cooperative and has been able to obtain the coins from the state. police have already obtained his phone and computer.
Dmitry Pavlov is the first Hydra operator to be detained in the history of the Russian language market, the paper noted. The platform had been active since at least 2015 and had about 17 million customers until German law enforcement seized its server infrastructure in early April and took down the darknet market website with the help of US agencies.
Image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
