Former police chief Yuri Zaitsev was not too long ago sentenced to eight years in jail for appearing as a bounty hunter for a darkish internet mark
Former police chief Yuri Zaitsev was not too long ago sentenced to eight years in jail for appearing as a bounty hunter for a darkish internet market. In December 2018, Zaitsev was working because the chief of his unit inside the Principal Directorate for Medication Management of the Republic of Khakassia — a regulation enforcement division which is analogous to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA. At the moment, he initiated contact with the operator of a darkish internet market, providing to assist search out a person who had appropriated medication that have been entrusted to him for placement in lifeless drops.
In Russia, not like the U.S., most darkish internet entrepreneurs don’t belief the submit workplace for shipments. The prevailing mode of dissemination of those unlawful merchandise is as an alternative accomplished by lifeless drops — a technique of supply by which two events can move gadgets or info backwards and forwards with out ever needing to satisfy in particular person.
In response to the Principal Investigation Division, the cop had obtained the equal of 52,000 roubles in Bitcoin (BTC) for his companies. On the time, this was equal to roughly, $750 or 0.2 BTC. He was discovered responsible on costs of bribery and the disclosure of labeled info.
In response to Zaitsev’s spouse, his prosecution was punishment for investigating senior officers inside his company. He was subsequently fired and prosecuted. From October-November 2019, Zaitsev uploaded a variety of movies to YouTube wherein he allegedly uncovered corruption amongst senior officers in his Directorate. This seems to be what led to felony costs in opposition to him for disclosure of labeled info. In November 2019, Zaitsev uploaded an attraction to president Putin on YouTube wherein he pleaded his case, however to no avail.
In the course of the unrelated Silk Highway investigation, quite a few regulation enforcement officers fell afoul to what they perceived as simple, untraceable Bitcoin. DEA Particular Agent Carl Pressure managed to elicit 1,200 Bitcoin from Ross Ulbricht. He obtained the funds utilizing an elaborate scheme wherein he had created a number of pretend personas starting from a significant South American drug trafficker to a corrupt regulation enforcement official. One of many duties assigned to him by Ulbricht was looking down and murdering a former affiliate who allegedly had stolen Bitcoin from him. The precise thief was one other regulation enforcement official concerned within the investigation. The homicide was staged by Pressure, however by no means materialized truly.
The occasions that happened in Khakasia a number of years after the Silk Highway saga appear in some methods like an inexpensive native knockoff of an costly HBO present. As Marx as soon as stated, historical past repeats itself “the primary time as tragedy, the second as farce”.