An engineer in India was selling LSD via the darknet and laundering the proceeds into Monero

Police in India detained a 35-year-old engineer named Edison, suspected of running a darknet site under the alias Ketamelon. Over a period of two years, he conducted over 600 drug shipments across the cities of Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Himachal Pradesh. He was arrested as part of Operation MELON.

Officers seized 1,127 LSD stamps, ketamine and cryptocurrency assets worth more than $82,000 from Edison. According to media reports, he purchased the substances from the British dealer Gunga Din, the largest distributor of LSD on the darknet, and was considered a “fourth-tier” seller in India, with maximum anonymity and turnover.

To launder proceeds and circumvent tracking, Edison used Monero (XMR), a confidential cryptocurrency that hides addresses and transaction amounts. However, analysts note that even such assets do not provide complete anonymity.

According to Andrew Firman, head of intelligence at Chainalysis, most criminals still choose bitcoin and Ethereum because of their liquidity, despite their transparency. At the same time, confidential coins, although not a panacea, are gaining popularity again after delisting from major exchanges.

In March, the US Treasury Department added dozens of bitcoin and Monero addresses associated with the Nemesis Market marketplace to the sanctions lists. The site was involved in the trade of illicit substances, including LSD and opioids.