IRS Criminal Investigation

01/27/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/28/2026 15:35

Slovakian man admits aiding Darknet market that sold drugs and stolen personal information

Date: Jan. 27, 2026

Contact: [email protected]

ST. LOUIS - A Slovakian man on Tuesday admitted involvement in a darknet market that sold drugs and stolen personal information

Alan Bill of Bratislava pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one felony count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He admitted involvement in the operation of Kingdom Market, a darknet marketplace that operated between March 2021 and December 2023. Kingdom users sold and bought illegal goods and services, including fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs, stolen financial information and identification documents, via cryptocurrency and anonymous or semi-anonymous accounts. Bill admitted 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.

Beginning around July 2022, undercover federal investigators made purchases from Kingdom market, including fentanyl, meth and a United States passport, that were shipped to the Eastern District of Missouri. Bill was arrested Dec. 15, 2023, at Newark Liberty International Airport after a customs inspection found two cellular telephones, a laptop, a thumb drive and a hardware wallet used to store cryptocurrency private keys. The electronics contained evidence of his involvement with Kingdom.

As part of his plea agreement, Bill also agreed to forfeit five different types of coins in a cryptocurrency wallet, as well as the Kingdommarket.live and Kingdommarket.so domains, which have been shut down by authorities.

Bill is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5. The drug trafficking conspiracy charge carries a penalty of at least five years in prison, with a maximum of 40, and the possibility of a fine of up to $5 million.

IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Missouri Department of Revenue investigated the case. The investigation also involved numerous foreign law enforcement agencies, including the German Federal Criminal Police, or Bundeskriminalamt, the Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor's Office - Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) as well as law enforcement agencies from Switzerland, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman is prosecuting the case.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.

IRS Criminal Investigation published this content on January 27, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on January 28, 2026 at 21:35 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]