In a major swoop, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested a drug peddler Makarand Pardeep Adivirkar, who is known as "Crypto King" in the circle.
The operation was led by NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede.
It may be recalled, a team of NCB Mumbai seized 20 LSD blots, a psychotropic substance that constitutes a commercial quantity, from Kharodi Village at Marve Road in Malad suburbs.
The seized psychotropic substance was purchased from Europe by using Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, by a drug peddler from Mumbai.
On Wednesday, the NCB arrested Adivirkar, known as "Crypto King" in Mumbai for providing the Bitcoin to effect the purchase of LSD, a psychotropic substance in November 2020 from abroad.
The seized drug was purchased from Darknet Web by using Bitcoin.
"The accused was found to be providing the Bitcoin to drugs purchaser in various parts of Mumbai. His modus operandi is that he was receiving the cash and providing Bitcoin on marginal profit by using his wallet that was used for the purchase of drugs from the Darknet web. His activity, unfortunately, supported the drug peddler, which is extremely dangerous for our society," Wankhede said.
In the present scenario, the sellers of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in some countries are using Bitcoin for illicit trafficking of drugs worldwide especially LSD, ecstasy/MDMA, heroin, hydroponic weeds, buds.
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit. "It is a decentralised digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries," he said.
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