FLORIDA
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a French man, who was serving at times as an administrator and senior moderator on one of the largest dark web criminal marketplaces, to 20 years in prison, according to officials.
Gal Vallerius, aka “Oxymonster,” 36, plead guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder money.
Vallerius pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. in the Southern District of Florida on Aug. 28.
Judge Scola also ordered Vallierius to forfeited 99.98947177 bitcoin and 121.94805811 bitcoin cash.
According to the court record, including the agreed-upon factual proffer, beginning in or around November 2013 a criminal online marketplace known as Dream Market began operating on the Tor “dark web” network.
Dream Market was designed to promote and facilitate the anonymous sale of illegal items.
In time, the Dream Market website became one of the largest dark web criminal marketplaces. All of the items and services on Dream Market were offered for sale in exchange for Bitcoin and other peer-to-peer crypto-currencies.
According to the agreed upon factual proffer, Vallerius first participated in the conspiracy by becoming a vendor on Dream Market. As a vendor, he sold Oxycodone and Ritalin under the moniker “Oxymonster.”
Shortly thereafter, Dream Market employed the defendant who acted at times as an administrator and senior moderator, according to officials.
In these positions, he played a role supporting the daily illicit transactions between buyers and vendors on Dream Market, such as trafficking in narcotics, and the laundering of illicit proceeds using virtual currencies, Dream Market’s tumblers and the dark web.
This investigation and prosecution were carried out by members of the South Florida High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force.