An engineer from India laundered drug trafficking proceeds through Monero

An engineer has been arrested in India on charges of operating a darknet platform. He used the private coin Monero (XMR) for money laundering.

🚨 NCB BUSTS DARKNET KINGPIN – KETAMELON IN OPS MELON 🚨 In a major crackdown, NCB Cochin busted India’s only Level-4 darknet drug vendor, 🔥 KETAMELON 🔥, seizing: 🔹 1,127 LSD blots 🧠 🔹 131.66g Ketamine 💉 🔹 ₹70 Lakhs in USDT 💰 (via hardware wallet) 🔹 Darknet tools: KITES… pic.twitter.com/KqvfXcw07h

— NCB INDIA (@narcoticsbureau) July 1, 2025

During the MELON operation, law enforcement detained a 35-year-old engineer named Edison. They seized 1127 doses of LSD, ketamine, and cryptocurrencies worth over $82,000.

The investigation lasted four months, with authorities tracking Edison’s operations, which allegedly included over 600 drug shipments to the cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh.

According to local media, Edison operated under the pseudonym Ketamelon for two years. He was considered the only "fourth level" darknet seller in the country. He purchased drugs from the British supplier Gunga Din, who is regarded as the largest distributor of LSD in the world.

For settlements and concealing transactions, the seller used XMR. Andrew Firman, head of the Chainalysis intelligence department, stated in a comment to Decrypt that private coins do not guarantee complete anonymity. According to him, most criminals still use Bitcoin and Ethereum due to their liquidity.

Firman reminded that confidential assets operate on an immutable ledger, so transaction proofs are preserved forever.

In March, Chainalysis cybercrime researcher Eric Jardine reported that darknet marketplaces are returning to the use of bitcoin as the primary payment method following the delisting of Monero from cryptocurrency exchanges.

However, operators of shadow platforms are once again switching to private coins, as they have realized the consequences of using digital gold due to its transparency, analysts of the company noted in May.

On March 4, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added 44 Bitcoin and five Monero addresses linked to the closed darknet marketplace Nemesis Market to its sanctions list. Among other things, the platform distributed prohibited substances.