Brockton to serve 8 years in prison, forfeit $2.3 million in bitcoin

A Darknet Club drug kingpin - who sold the likes of Ecstasy, Ketamine and Generic Xanax in a hard-to-access Internet marketplace - will spend eight years behind bars and be able to make the first federal confiscation of Bitcoin worth about $ 2 million. Such in Massachusetts.

This sentence sends a clear message to the Dark Web criminals: The federal government is entering this place. We will find you and hold you accountable aid Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachel Rollins in a statement. Thanks to the incredible work of our law enforcement colleagues, a lesser cyber criminal is hiding in the shadows.

Bin Thanh Ley, 25, of Brockton, started the Eastside High Storefront at Darknet, the illicit marketplace on the Wall Street Market, when he was just 22 years old. It is a part of the Internet that cannot be reached by standard web search that requires special software - Tor, originally called The Onion Router, to encrypt and access anonymous Internet relay networks.