A Virginia man who co-created Empire Market, one of the largest dark web marketplaces at the time, pleaded guilty to federal drug conspiracy charges for facilitating $430 million in illegal transactions from 2018 to 2020.
The marketplace operated as a hidden service accessible only via TOR browsers and was advertised as an AlphaBay “clone,” modeled after the notorious dark web marketplace shut down by authorities in 2017.
At its peak in August 2020, Empire Market had approximately 1.68 million unique registered users, including nearly 360,000 buyers and more than 5,000 vendors.
While the cybercrime market also sold stolen account credentials, personally identifying information, counterfeit currency, and computer hacking tools, drug sales totaled nearly $375 million over the site’s lifespan, representing the most prevalent activity, with 166,029 vendor listings for controlled substances alone.
30-year-old Raheim Hamilton (aka “Sydney” and “ZeroAngel”) owned and operated Empire Market from August 2017 onward together with co-defendant Thomas Pavey (aka “Dopenugget”), facilitating more than 4 million transactions between vendors and buyers.
They also hired moderators to resolve disputes between vendors and customers, with Hamilton personally handling some cases and supervising approximately 5 moderators, according to court documents.
Hamilton admitted that he and Pavey designed Empire Market to help users avoid law enforcement detection and launder money from illicit transactions, with all transactions conducted in cryptocurrency to maintain the users’ anonymity. He also admitted to selling counterfeit U.S. currency on AlphaBay under the “ZeroAngel” username from June 2016 to July 2017.
The plea agreement also revealed that law enforcement agents made multiple undercover purchases from Empire Market vendors between April 2019 and May 2020, buying at least 105.4 grams of heroin and 143.5 grams of methamphetamine. In August 2020, the authorities intercepted a package containing 443.5 grams of methamphetamine ordered on Empire Market.
Hamilton confirmed that the controlled substances distributed through the cybercrime market included at least 103,396 grams of heroin, 71,992 grams of methamphetamine, 446,683 grams of cocaine, 7,695 grams of cocaine base, 13,314 grams of fentanyl, and other drugs.
When the two defendants were charged in July 2024, the U.S. Justice Department announced that authorities had already seized $75 million in cryptocurrency during the investigation.
Hamilton has also agreed to forfeit approximately 1,230 bitcoin and 24.4 Ether, along with three Virginia properties, while Pavey agreed to forfeit approximately 1,584 bitcoin, two boxes containing 25-ounce gold bars, three cars, and two Florida properties.
Hamilton entered a guilty plea in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum of life. Pavey also pleaded guilty last year to a federal drug conspiracy charge and now faces the same potential sentence as Hamilton.
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