#Slovakian National Pleads Guilty to Running Kingdom Market

A Slovakian national admits to helping operate a darknet marketplace that sold narcotics, cybercrime tools, and services.

#Investigation and Charges

A 33-year-old Slovakian national, Alan Bill, also known online as "Vend0r" or "KingdomOfficial", has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances for his role in running the darknet marketplace Kingdom Market.

#Kingdom Market Operations

Kingdom Market operated from March 2021 through December 2023, and during its operation, it sold a wide range of illegal goods and services, including:

• Narcotics like methamphetamine and fentanyl
• Cybercrime tools and services
• Fake government IDs
• Stolen personal information

#Investigation Details

The investigation into Kingdom Market began in July 2022, when federal undercover investigators made purchases from the marketplace, acquiring methamphetamine, fentanyl, and a fraudulent U.S. passport that was shipped to Missouri.

#Seizure and Arrest

When law enforcement seized Kingdom Market's domains and infrastructure in December 2023, they found that the marketplace hosted 42,000 items for sale, and had several hundred registered sellers and tens of thousands of customer accounts.

Authorities arrested Bill on December 15, 2023, at Newark Liberty International Airport after customs inspectors discovered two cell phones, a laptop, a thumb drive, and a cryptocurrency hardware wallet containing evidence that directly linked him to Kingdom Market.

#Plea Agreement and Sentencing

According to court documents, Bill allegedly held an administrator role and served as a moderator on the market's Reddit and dread community.

Bill admitted to assisting others in maintaining or operating Kingdom by providing or procuring web-administration services. He also admitted receiving cryptocurrency from a wallet associated with Kingdom, assisting with the creation of Kingdom's forum pages on websites such as Reddit and Dread, having access to Kingdom usernames that made postings on behalf of Kingdom on social media accounts, and communicating with others regarding certain Kingdom transactions.

Under his plea agreement, Bill has agreed to surrender the Kingdommarket.so and Kingdommarket.live domain names, which were shut down by law enforcement, and to forfeit five types of cryptocurrency from a digital wallet.

Bill faces sentencing on May 5 on the drug trafficking conspiracy charge, which carries a mandatory minimum five-year prison term and a maximum 40-year sentence, and he could also be fined up to $5 million.