Old constabulary chief Yuri Zaitsev was recently sentenced to 8 years in prison for acting as a bounty hunter for a dark spider web marketplace. In December 2022, Zaitsev was working every bit the leader of his unit within the Chief Directorate for Drugs Control of the Democracy of Khakassia — a constabulary enforcement division analogous to the United states of america Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA. At that fourth dimension, he initiated contact with the operator of a darknet market place, offer to help hunt down a man who had appropriated drugs that were entrusted to him for placement in dead drops.

In Russia, unlike the U.S., most dark web entrepreneurs do non trust the mail part for shipments. The prevailing manner of dissemination of these illegal products is instead completed through expressionless drops — a method of delivery past which ii parties can pass items or information back and along without ever needing to meet in person.

According to the Primary Investigation Department, the cop received the equivalent of 52,000 rubles in Bitcoin (BTC) for his services. At the time, this was equivalent to approximately $750 U.Due south. doll, or 0.ii BTC. He was found guilty on charges of bribery and the disclosure of classified information.

According to Zaitsev's wife, his prosecution was punishment for investigating senior officials within his agency. He was later on fired and prosecuted. From October–November 2022, Zaitsev uploaded a number of videos to YouTube in which he allegedly exposed corruption amid senior officials in his Directorate. This appears to exist what led to criminal charges against him for the disclosure of classified information. In November 2022, Zaitsev uploaded an appeal to President Vladimir Putin on YouTube in which he pleaded his example, only to no avail.

During the unrelated Silk Route investigation, numerous law enforcement officials fell afoul to what they perceived as piece of cake, untraceable Bitcoin. DEA Special Agent Carl Strength managed to arm-twist 1,200 Bitcoin from Ross Ulbricht. He obtained the funds using an elaborate scheme in which he created multiple fake personas ranging from a major Due south American drug trafficker to a decadent law enforcement official. One of the tasks assigned to him by Ulbricht was hunting down and murdering a former associate who had allegedly stolen Bitcoin from him. The actual thief was some other law enforcement official involved in the investigation. The murder was staged by Force simply never materialized in authenticity.

The events that took place in Khakasia a few years later the Silk Road saga seem in some ways like a cheap local knockoff of an expensive HBO prove. As Karl Marx once said, history repeats itself "the showtime time as tragedy, the 2d as farce."