Key Takeaways
- In June, Indian law enforcement arrested a darknet drug vendor operating under the alias Ketamelon.
- Binance has confirmed that it has assisted the authorities.
- Authorities called Ketamelon “India’s most prolific darknet drug syndicate.”
Binance on Tuesday, Aug. 19, confirmed its involvement in the dismantling of one of India’s most prolific darknet drug vendors, Ketamelon, in June.
The crypto exchange said it assisted India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in analyzing crypto activity, which ultimately led to the arrest of Edison Babu, the alleged Ketamelon mastermind.
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Busting a Darknet Kingpin
Following “weeks of surveillance and intelligence gathering,” the NCB arrested Babu on June 29 after intercepting packages containing LSD.
The agency described Ketamelon as India’s only “Level 4” darknet drug vendor based on its five-star scale, which takes into account the potency of drugs sold and customer service.
Previously, in 2023, the NCB took down India’s only 5-star-rated darknet vendor, the Zambada cartel.
The name Ketamelon derives from the vendor’s early involvement in Ketamine smuggling. In recent years, it had shifted to LSD procured internationally from darknet wholesalers.
According to the NCB, in the 14 months leading up to Babu’s arrest, Ketamelon shipped around 600 deliveries across India to cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Bhopal, Patna, Delhi, and regions in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Evidence seized by law enforcement included a hardware wallet holding approximately $800 worth of USDT. Custodial wallets on platforms including Binance were also identified.
Binance Steps In
While darknet drug dealers typically rely on privacy coins and crypto mixers to obscure their activity, eventually, they need to off-ramp into fiat. This is where crypto exchanges come in.
“Criminals may operate in the shadows of the darknet and use privacy coins thinking they’re invisible, but they inevitably leave digital traces,” said Nils Andersen-Röed, the Global Head of Binance’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
“By leveraging advanced analytics and working hand-in-hand with investigators and other stakeholders, we helped trace and freeze those illicit funds. Binance remains committed to proactively supporting such operations to ensure bad actors are brought to justice and to keep the crypto ecosystem safe for everyone,” he added.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
