Today, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Iran-based Behrouz Parsarad, the administrator of Nemesis online darknet marketplace (DNM), including 44 bitcoin (BTC) addresses and 5 Monero addresses. OFAC designated Parsarad for facilitating the sale of fentanyl and other drugs around the world, including the United States.
In this blog, we’ll analyze Nemesis’ activity and role in facilitating cybercrime, examine the on-chain connections of Nemesis and Parsarad to other players in the DNM ecosystem, and consider the implications of today’s designation.
What is Nemesis?
Established by Parsarad in 2021, Nemesis facilitated the trade of illegal drugs and services by narcotics traffickers and cybercriminals before its servers were seized in March 2024 by U.S., German, and Lithuanian authorities. According to OFAC, Nemesis had over 30,000 active users and 1,000 vendors, and between 2021 and 2024, facilitated the sale of nearly $30 million worth of fentanyl and other drugs around the world, including to the United States. Like other DNMs, Nemesis has also facilitated the sale of a wide variety of other goods and services such as false identification documents and professional hacking services that enabled buyers to hire hackers to illegally seize control of the online accounts and communications of selected victims.
As Nemesis’ sole administrator, Parsarad held full control over Nemesis and its cryptocurrency wallets. A closer look at his on-chain activity sheds light on Nemesis’ connectivity to other DNMs and Parsarad’s efforts to cover his tracks.
Parsarad’s on-chain activity reveals DNM connectivity, security awareness
As we can see in the below Chainalysis Reactor graph, most of Parsarad’s transaction volume is with Nemesis. He also sent more than $12,000 to several other DNMs, such as ASAP Market, Incognito Market, and Next Generation. Between July 2022 and March 2024, Parsarad’s BTC wallets in today’s designation received more than $850,000, including three addresses nested at centralized exchanges that Parsarad used to cash out some of his proceeds. The total amount of cryptocurrency sent by Parsarad exceeds $1.6 million, meaning he nearly doubled the value of his BTC holdings and strongly suggesting that he took advantage of BTC’s recent price appreciation to increase the value of his BTC.
Of note, the Iran-based Parsarad does not have any on-chain exposure to Iranian services, but does have significant direct exposure to DNMs and indirect exposure to mixers. Given drug-related offenses are often punishable by death in Iran — which has waged a long war against the opium trade, given its proximity to Afghanistan and role as a major transit country for drug traffickers — it makes sense that Parsarad would seek to obfuscate his on-chain narcotics sales activity from inside Iran.
Designation signals broadening focus of campaign to disrupt fentanyl trade
In recent years, U.S. authorities have paid close attention to disrupting the global fentanyl supply chain, especially as it relates to the China-Mexico corridor, as we recently highlighted in our 2025 Crypto Crime Report. Today’s designation of an Iran-based DNM administrator shows the commitment of OFAC and its partners to disrupting the fentanyl trade not just in China and Latin America, but worldwide. It also demonstrates the broadening scope of illicit on-chain activity emanating from Iran beyond traditional domains, including support for regional proxies such as Lebanese Hezbollah and the Houthis, and involvement in malign cyber activity, such as ransomware and disinformation.
In addition, today’s designation is OFAC’s first as a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-led interagency Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement Team. Since last year’s Nemesis takedown, Parsarad has discussed setting up a new DNM to take Nemesis’ place, with vendors who were previously active on the marketplace, according to OFAC. We will continue to provide updates on DNMs that emerge as possible successors to Nemesis and any connections between Parsarad’s activity and global fentanyl trafficking networks.
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