The U.S. Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on an Iranian national, Behrouz Parsarad, for his role in operating Nemesis, a darknet marketplace linked to the trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
The Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the enforcement action on March 4, 2025, which included also blacklisting 49 cryptocurrency addresses associated with the platform.
Nemesis, which launched in 2021, quickly became a major hub for illegal drug sales, facilitating transactions worth nearly $30 million over a three-year period. The platform reportedly had over 30,000 active users and 1,000 vendors, relying on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) for payments.
OFAC stated that Nemesis was intentionally designed with money laundering mechanisms to obscure the illicit flow of funds. Before its shutdown in March 2024, narcotics traffickers and cybercriminals openly operated on the marketplace, selling synthetic opioids and other banned substances.
According to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, there are direct financial links between Nemesis and Chinese manufacturers of drug precursors—key chemical ingredients used to produce synthetic opioids. Funds from vendors on the platform reportedly flowed directly to these suppliers, further fueling the global fentanyl crisis.
A joint law enforcement operation involving U.S., German, and Lithuanian authorities led to the seizure of the platform and the confiscation of approximately $102,000 in cryptocurrency. However, Parsarad allegedly attempted to revive Nemesis by reaching out to former vendors, triggering further sanctions from U.S. officials.
The crackdown on Nemesis follows a broader effort by U.S. and international authorities to dismantle darknet drug markets. TRM Labs reported that darknet marketplaces generated over $1.7 billion in revenue in 2024 alone, with Russian-language platforms dominating the industry. While Western darknet markets faced continuous law enforcement pressure, Russian-operated platforms remained largely unaffected, with nearly 97% of illicit drug sales involving cryptocurrencies such as BTC and TRON (TRX).
Despite the closure of Nemesis, U.S. officials warn that the darknet drug trade remains resilient, with new platforms emerging to replace those shut down by authorities.
RELATED: India’s Narcotics Control Bureau Heightens Scrutiny on Cryptocurrency Payments in Darknet Crackdown
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