According to the indictment unsealed by the Manhattan District Attorney on February 17, 2023, one of the largest-ever dark web drug peddling operations — raking in $7.2 million through cryptocurrency exchanges — has been shut down, and its Queens ringleader and four others have been charged.
Nan Wu, 35, and four accomplices, Peng Peng Tang, 30, Bowen Chen, 38, and Zixiang Lin, 22, are accused of shipping over 10,000 packages of cocaine, MDMA, ketamine, and other substances to customers in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Together they operated the dark web vendor “FireBunnyUSA,” and laundered $7.2 million through cryptocurrency exchanges. Wu’s team helped to ship the packages by purchasing shipping materials and renting U-Hauls and storage facilities, prosecutors said. They were assisted by USPS employee Katie Montgomery who provided advice about importing drugs into the United States and checked on the status of packages.
FireBunny operated from multiple dark web marketplaces from January 2019 to August 2022, describing itself as an “old vendor with the best in QUALITY SPEED OF DELIVERY and STEALTH.”
Between June 2021 and August 2022, undercover Manhattan DA investigators made 11 purchases from FireBunny. Investigators executed a search warrant on Wu and Tang's apartment in July 2022. Wu was arrested and taken into federal custody on an open warrant for prior drug charges. Investigators also recovered 1 kilogram of Ketamine, more than 1,200 MDMA pills and other drugs and packaging supplies.
After the July 2022 search warrant, FireBunny temporarily suspended operations. Eventually, Chen continued Wu’s work in California until a search warrant was executed at his residence in August 2022.
Phones recovered from Wu and Tang contained extensive evidence of Wu’s operation, including communications with suppliers concerning the importation of Ketamine and MDMA, and communications with customers on the encrypted messaging applications Wickr and Telegram. Investigators also found nearly $900,000 worth of cryptocurrency on Tang’s phone.