Trip to world beard competition ends in arrest for alleged dark web drug dealer

Olivia Solon in San Francisco
Thursday 28 September 2017 21.14 BST

United States authorities arrested a suspected dark web drug dealer as he traveled into the country from his home in France to attend the World Beard and Moustache Championships.

Gal Vallerius, a French 38-year-old with a magnificent red beard, is accused of being a drug kingpin on the dark web, acting as an administrator for Dream Market, a marketplace for illegal narcotics including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines, counterfeit consumer goods and stolen data.

Vallerius was arrested as he landed at Atlanta international airport on 31 August, and during a border search of his laptop confirmed his identity as “OxyMonster”, the username for a Dream Market account that was not only listed as an administrator for the site but also listed prescription drugs including OxyContin and Ritalin for sale. Officials also discovered about $500,000 in bitcoins, the currency used for anonymously trading on the marketplace.

The arrest, first reported by the Miami Herald, was the culmination a multi-agency investigation that started in February 2016. As part of the investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration agents made undercover purchases of crystal meth, LSD and hydrocodone from a range of vendors on Dream Market and trawled the site to identify the usernames associated with the organising team.

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