I think we can put this article in the calendar. I believe it is a first, or at least a first in a long time.
Tons of folk have actually gotten prison sentences by Russia for their crimes! Who the hell knew?
Not many people jhave gotten prison sentences, especially from Russia, and especially not for dark market crimes anyway.
The article starts out:
Russian authorities have sentenced the leader of the criminal group behind the now-closed dark web platform Hydra Market to life in prison. Additionally, more than a dozen accomplices have been convicted for their involvement in the production and sale of nearly a ton of drugs.
We know that the WNBA player had a little bit of drugs on her, and she was going to be serving a ton of time in a Russian prison. But luckily, we got her free in exchange for others Russia wanted. But the WNBA player in question never committed a single crime, let alone a crime on the dark market.
The article continues:
Stanislav Moiseyev, the group’s “organizer,” who was sentenced to life imprisonment, also received a fine of 4 million rubles, as Russian media group RBC first reported.
But that’s not all we want to highlight from the article.
His co-conspirators (Alexander Chirkov, Andrey Trunov, Evgeny Andreyev, Ivan Koryakin, Vadim Krasninsky, Georgy Georgobiani, Artur Kolesnikov, Nikolay Bilyk, Alexander Khramov, Kirill Gusev, Anton Gaykin, Alexey Gukalin, Mikhail Dombrovsky, Alexander Aminov and Sergey Chekh) received imprisonment for terms ranging from 8 to 23 years, with fines totaling 16 million rubles.
The WNBA plauyer could’ve gotten tons of years just for the drug they found, but yet, the 8-23 years thehy’re getting in Russia is only 5-10 here in the states? WTF is up with that shit?
The court said they would serve their imprisonment terms within special and strict regime penal colonies.
That’s basicly solitary confinement here in the states if that’s where they’re going. No proof.
“In total, law enforcement officers seized almost a ton of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in various constituent entities of the Russian Federation during searches of the defendants’ residences, houses adapted for laboratories for the production of prohibited substances, garages used for storage, and cars equipped with special hiding places during the liquidation of the criminal community.”
This Russian dark web platform was used by criminals to sell drugs and launder money, and it had a turnover of $1.35 billion in 2020, 19,000 registered seller accounts, and served at least 17 million customers worldwide.
Hydra also offered stolen databases, forged documents, and hacking-for-hire services. When it seized its servers, German police also seized 543 bitcoins from its profits (currently worth over $51 million).
As Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announced at the time, Hydra Market had its own Bitcoin Bank Mixer, which was used to obfuscate all cryptocurrency transactions made on the platform, making it a lot harder for law enforcement to track the funds obtained from illegal activities.
Finally,
On Friday, Russian law enforcement also arrested and indicted notorious ransomware affiliate Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev (aka Wazawaka, Uhodiransomwar, m1x, and Boriselcin) for developing malware and his involvement in several hacking groups.
The recent sentencing of Russian cybercriminals is unusual for the country, which typically turns a blind eye to threat actors operating within its borders as long as they do not attack Russian organizations and individuals.
To read the entire article, please read: Russia sentences Hydra dark web market leader to life in prison.
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