-
Raheim Hamilton, a 30-year-old Suffolk man, awaits his imprisonment sentence over his drug dealings on the dark web.
-
Hamilton co-created and operated a popular underground market, Empire Market, with Thomas Pavey, from Florida, facilitating the buying and selling of illegal drugs with cryptocurrencies.
-
The recent incident highlights law enforcement’s stance in trampling down dark web markets for illegal activities and the operators of such platforms.
A Suffolk man who helped build one of the world’s largest online drug markets has admitted his guilt in federal court, facing a mandatory decade in prison.
On January 26, 2026, Raheim Hamilton, in the District Court in Illinois, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and operating Empire Market – an online marketplace where people could sell hundreds of thousands of illegal drugs through cryptocurrency.
From 2018 to 2020, users carried out more than 4 million criminal transactions on Empire Market, totaling $430 million, including $375 million in drug sales.
The sentencing for Hamilton will occur on 17 June 2026 (by District Judge Steven C. Seeger) for his role with the Empire Market to provide drugs and distribute controlled substances (heroin, cocaine & methamphetamine) which carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment under applicable federal sentencing laws.
How Empire Market Operated in the Shadows
Hamilton and his partner, 40-year-old Thomas Pavey of Florida, designed Empire Market specifically to avoid police. Users access the site through a specialized browser called the Tor network, which masks their identity and location from outside observers.
Transactions were completed with digital currencies such as Bitcoin to anonymize, thereby obfuscating the origin of the funds transferred. Also, the site requires the use of encrypted messages for communication between parties involved in the transaction.
Because of all of these factors combined, vendors, through the site, would sell illegal drugs that were typically shipped through the United States Postal Service to customers across the entire country. The federal investigators were able to purchase illegal drugs, including both methamphetamine and heroin, in an undercover operation from the vendors through the website.
The size of the underground marketplaces on the dark web is astounding. The most recent report published by the blockchain analysis company Chainalysis (2026) has shown that the level of activity in the underground web, with crypto, is at an all-time high.
Since these types of websites pose a serious problem for law enforcement agencies, they are making serious efforts to disrupt them.
A Costly Operation: Forfeiting Bitcoin and Properties
As part of his guilty plea, Hamilton is paying a steep price. He has agreed to forfeit assets directly tied to his illegal operation. This includes a huge amount of digital currency: approximately 1,230 Bitcoin and more than 24 Ether. Given the volatile value of cryptocurrency, this stash was worth tens of millions of dollars at the time of the seizure.
The forfeiture doesn’t stop online. Hamilton is also losing three properties in Virginia, including a residence in his hometown of Suffolk. Authorities will also take multiple electronic devices and cash seized during the investigation.
Authorities also arrested Thomas Pavey as part of the operation, and he later entered a plea agreement with the Department of Justice. In addition to his cooperation with law enforcement, Pavey agreed to forfeit more than 1,500 Bitcoin, along with gold bullion, luxury cars, and real estate located in Florida.
These cases show that prosecutors are increasingly targeting the proceeds of cybercrime and the criminal networks that enable it.
A Bigger Picture: Fighting Dark Web Markets
The seizure of Empire Market was only one component of an ongoing, concerted effort by law enforcement to disrupt dark web operators. Although law enforcement has taken down well-known dark web operators like Silk Road, new groups continue to emerge and replace those that came before.
As such, the Department of Justice has made the dismantling of criminal cryptocurrency exchanges and the prosecution of major cyber intrusions from underground markets to attacks on critical institutions, as seen in the recent guilty plea from a hacker who breached the U.S. Supreme Court, one of its highest priorities.
The success in this case came from a collaborative effort. The IRS Criminal Investigations Cyber Crimes Unit and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) led the investigation into the Empire Market with assistance from many other federal and local agencies. This move allowed them to follow the very complex digital trail associated with virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies).
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, darknet markets create opportunities for the global expansion of illegal drug trafficking and other illegal behavior, which require coordinated international cooperation to dismantle the networks through investigation of both the operators and the financial infrastructure that supports those operators.
This conviction sends a strong message to the global networks of illegal drug trafficking and money laundering linked to the dark web marketplace. As Hamilton awaits his sentence this summer, the multi-million dollar empire he built from his computer in Suffolk has vanished, leaving behind a case that highlights the digital age of crime and punishment.
