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The Russian law enforcement authorities have convicted the leader of the malicious threat group that operates the now-defunct dark web platform Hydra Market.
Reports revealed that the apprehended leader was sentenced to life imprisonment. At the same time, more than a dozen accomplices have been convicted of their roles in the creation and distribution of massive amounts of illegal drugs.
The authorities stated that the group’s alleged organiser, Stanislav Moiseyev, was sentenced to life in prison and fined 4 million rubles. On the other hand, his co-conspirators Alexander Khramov, Kirill Gusev, Anton Gaykin, Alexey Gukalin, Mikhail Dombrovsky, Alexander Aminov, Alexander Chirkov, Andrey Trunov, Evgeny Andreyev, Ivan Koryakin, Vadim Krasninsky, Georgy Georgobiani, Artur Kolesnikov, Nikolay Bilyk, and Sergey Chekh were sentenced to 8 to 23 years in prison and fined a total of 16 million rubles.
The court stated they would serve their prison terms in unique, rigorous regime correctional colonies. Moreover, these departments revealed that the criminal gang operated in numerous Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus regions.
During the liquidation of the criminal community, the officers seized nearly a ton of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in various constituent entities of the Russian Federation during searches of defendants’ properties, such as homes and houses converted into laboratories.
The Hydra dark web platform was the leading black market before its seizure.
The Hydra dark web market was one of the world’s largest darknet bazaars for drug sales and money laundering before it was taken down by the German and US police in April 2022.
Before its confiscation, this Russian dark web network was used by criminals to sell drugs and launder money. In 2020, it generated $1.35 billion in revenue, with 19,000 registered seller accounts and at least 17 million consumers worldwide.
Furthermore, this dark net platform provided stolen databases, counterfeit documents, and hacking-for-hire services for malicious actors, making it one of the most vital servers for malicious individuals. When German authorities seized its servers, they also stole 543 bitcoins from its revenues, valued at more than $50 million.
Its leader’s sentence and absence from the cybercriminal landscape have left a massive gap for malicious activities. Therefore, new platforms might replace them as the demand for such platforms increases in the black-market industry.
