Dark Web Drug Dealer Arrested on His Way to International Beard Competition in the US

[Jabberwocky]

The US authorities have arrested a suspected dark web drug dealer, Gal Vallerius, who was traveling from France to the US to compete in the World Beard and Moustache Championship in Austin, Texas.

Vallerius has been identified as “OxyMonster,” who is a vendor and administrator on Dream Market, where consumers use cryptocurrency to buy and sell illicit drugs and counterfeit passports. After a multi-agency investigation, 38-year-old Vallerius was arrested on August 31 at the Atlanta International Airport. According to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), OxyMonster was a senior moderator, administrator and a vendor on the underground online market.

Reports suggest that the investigation officials confirmed his login details and his online identity on Dream Market after they searched his laptop. “A border search of his laptop upon his arrival at Atlanta International Airport confirmed his identity as ‘OxyMonster,'” a DEA affidavit reads. They also found $500,000 worth of bitcoin and a PGP encryption key titled OxyMonster.

“Get drugs from France to anywhere in Europe and the US,” dark web seller promised
Vallerius is currently been charged for “supporting daily illicit transactions between buyers and vendors such as the trafficking in narcotics and laundering in the proceeds of their activities using bitcoin.”

The investigation officials also allege that the suspect distributed drugs, including cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, LSD and oxycodone, between May 2015 and August 2017. OxyMonster had been advertising and selling drugs out of France, promising to deliver drugs to customers in Europe and the United States. He now faces a new conspiracy indictment that carries up to life in federal prison, according to the Miami Herald.

Federal agents discovered the real identity behind OxyMonster after linking his profile to his Bitcoin address that was controlled by Vallerius. Going through his social media accounts, including Instagram and Twitter, they compared the writing style of Vallerius and OxyMonster on the Dream Market, discovering “many similarities in the use of words and punctuation.”

DEA said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the United States Postal inspection Service (USPIS) worked on the case to bring down OxyMonster, the biggest of over half a dozen dark web targets charged in South Florida over the past year. This was the first time Vallerius was traveling to the United States.

The US and the international authorities have been cracking down on some of the major dark web marketplaces and sellers, previously having taken down AlphaBay, Hansa and HumboldtFarms earlier this year.

Source: https://wccftech.com/dark-web-kingpin-arrested/

 

[S.J.B.]

It was a really bad idea to travel to the United States... especially for something as trivial as this. :/

 

[wolf359loki]

It was a really bad idea to travel to the United States... especially for something as trivial as this. :/

No kidding. I aways avoid taking a flight thru the USA at all cost. I would never visit there but I do travel to south America and the islands semi regularly and I skip over any landing in that place. They can fuck up all your best laid plans in a heartbeat even if you are not staying and just passing through the airport. That is so very true. I had a friend who was an older guy. He got married late in life to a nice older lady who was some ones grandmother. For their honeymoon they planned a very nice trip from Toronto they rented a nice car (we lived as far west as you can get front Toronto that you can get) and pre-booked a nice room in New York city. Had some expensive tickets to some show on Broadway too.

These are some very square people. They had a business in Whitehorse and even had a small branch of the business in Alaska they would work in the summer too. They got to the border and they ass hat looked at their nice rental and told them they were being denied entry because the model of car they rented was popular with drug dealers. Just like that they couldn't Cross the border until they got a waiver from the US Consult. They lost their business at the same time.

It took them about 18 to nearly 24 months to get it cleared off their records. That for me was the last time I ever went to even stop in the US on a connecting flight. To much power in the hands of someone who was not good enough to be a cop or even a prison guard.

 

[Ravr]

Not just the US... Stay away from the five eyes countries. Also, I am betting this little competition was a setup