On November 9, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC) sanctioned three individuals and nine entities associated with a darknet marketplaces and research chemicals group.
The Treasury is identifying over 50 virtual wallet addresses associated with this operation and claims to take further action to counter the abuse of virtual currency.
Two Dutch nationals, Alex Adrianus Martinus and Martinus Pterus Henri De Koning, were selling various illicit synthetics on the dark-net marketplaces and later using their own website, promoted via popular social media ads.
In 2017, they were arrested by the National Police of the Netherlands and released shortly after. Despite that, they continued to engage in their online business. It is said that they received more than $2 million in virtual currency from sales through their seized website, therealarc.com, between November 2018 and February 2021.
Operating in the gray area, their business was covered under legitimate companies, established in the Netherlands, which also allowed them to accept bank transfers, among others.
This is not the first time OFAC has targeted fentanyl-related activity. In April 2018, OFAC designated Jian Zhang. Later on, in August 2019, OFAC redesignated fentanyl traffickers Fujin Zheng and Xiaobing Yan under the SDNTK program.
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