Five-Billion-Tenge Darknet Operation Shut Down in Kazakhstan
Photo: Elements.envato.com
Kazakhstan’s Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) has reported shutting down the RAKS Exchange cryptocurrency platform, which was financing more than 200 major drug houses in Kazakhstan and abroad, Orda.kz reports.
According to the FMA, RAKS Exchange laundered proceeds from drug trafficking and fraud. The platform was widely used in criminal circles, partnering with 20 major darknet markets with a combined audience of more than five million users.
Over the past three years, more than 200 drug houses across the CIS—including Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova—laundered criminal proceeds through this service. The crypto exchanger’s total turnover amounted to more than $224 million, the FMA stated.
Law enforcement blocked 67 cryptocurrency wallets linked to the scheme, freezing illicit assets worth 5.2 billion tenge.
The exchange has now been fully shut down, while investigators work to identify its organizers.
This dealt a significant economic blow to the shadow drug trafficking infrastructure, destabilized supply chains, reduced the turnover of drug markets, and undermined consumer confidence in illegal platforms, the agency concluded.
Original Author: Nikita Drobny
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