The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India has detained a Mumbai resident known as “crypto king,” who reportedly used bitcoin to buy drugs on the dark web. The accused is not a customer of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx, according to the company.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India has detained "crypto king," Wazirx said the accused is not a customer of ours.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India has detained “crypto king,” Wazirx said the accused is not a customer of ours.

Makarand Pardeep Adivirkar, a Mumbai resident known as “crypto king” in the country’s underground drug circuit, has been detained by India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). He reportedly used bitcoin to buy narcotics on the dark web and have them shipped to India from Europe.

According to Sameer Wankhede, director of the NCB Mumbai Unit, “in November 2020, a team of NCB Mumbai recovered 20 LSD blots from Kharodi Village in Malad,” local media said.

Furthermore, the director was reported as saying: The seized psychotropic substance was purchased from Europe by using bitcoin by a drug peddler from Mumbai.

“His mode of operation was to accept cash and supply bitcoins on marginal earnings by utilizing his wallet, which was used to acquire narcotics on the darknet,” the NCB explained.

Following claims that the crypto king utilized the Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx to facilitate his drug transactions, the exchange released a statement emphasizing that he is not a user.

“On June 11, 2021, Wazirx got an email from the NCB asking about the abovementioned accused and his trading behavior on Wazirx,” Wazirx tweeted. We discovered that the accused is not a Wazirx user after reviewing our data, and we informed the police on June 12, 2021.”

“That being said, we want to emphasize that Wazirx adheres to global best practices in terms of KYC and AML compliance, as well as having a robust transaction monitoring system in place,” the exchange continued.

Before enabling a consumer to trade on Wazirx, we undertake a strict KYC verification of their identity as well as a secondary KYC verification through connected bank accounts of users.” The following was emphasized in the conversation:

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