Empire Market Co-Creator Gets 40 Years: Raheim Hamilton Sentenced

Raheim Hamilton, 30, of Suffolk, Virginia, was sentenced on October 6, 2026, to 40 years in federal prison and fined $5 million for co-creating and operating Empire Market, a dark web marketplace that ran from 2018 to 2020, facilitated over four million transactions totaling $430 million, and sold fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, stolen credentials, hacking tools, and counterfeit currency. His co-creator Thomas Pavey, 41, already pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing later this month. Combined Bitcoin forfeitures between both men exceed 2,800 Bitcoin.

That version was called Empire Market. It launched on February 1, 2018. By the time it closed in August 2020, it had processed more than four million transactions worth over $430 million, made drug trafficking more efficient for thousands of vendors and buyers, and built quality control features specifically designed to help dealers ship fentanyl and cocaine without being caught by the post office.

What Empire Market Was and What It Sold

Empire Market was a successor to AlphaBay, and Hamilton and Pavey deliberately designed it that way. After the FBI, DEA, and Europol seized AlphaBay in 2017 in a joint operation, a vacuum emerged. Two men who had been using AlphaBay to sell counterfeit currency decided to fill it.

The resulting platform became one of the largest dark web drug marketplaces of its era. Drug sales were the dominant activity, nearly $375 million of the $430 million total, roughly 87% of all revenue. The physical quantities of controlled substances that moved through the site are documented in the criminal record:

At least 13,314 grams of fentanyl. 446,683 grams of cocaine, 446 kilograms. 71,992 grams of methamphetamine. 103,396 grams of heroin.

Beyond drugs, the site sold what dark web marketplaces routinely offer: stolen account credentials, personally identifying information, counterfeit currency, and computer hacking tools. As we’ve covered in looking at how dark web carding markets operate , stolen financial data and hacking tools occupy the same criminal infrastructure as drug sales. They’re different products on the same platform.

How the Platform Was Designed to Evade Law Enforcement

Hamilton and Pavey didn’t just build a marketplace. They built one with specific features designed to help both themselves and their users avoid federal prosecution.

All transactions required cryptocurrency. No traditional payment methods were permitted. This removed the direct financial trail that conventional drug trafficking cases depend on.

They actively encouraged users to run cryptocurrency transactions through tumbling and mixing services, tools that pool cryptocurrency from multiple sources to obscure where funds originated. As we’ve covered in the AudiA6 crypto laundering takedown , mixing and tumbling are standard methods dark web operators use to break the blockchain trail between criminal proceeds and identifiable wallets. Hamilton and Pavey didn’t just use it themselves. They it as best practice for their users.

The platform required encrypted communications. Hamilton personally managed the moderator team, approximately five people, and handled disputes between vendors and buyers.

The vendor rating system included a particularly specific feature. Buyers could rate vendors not just on product quality but on how well the vendor concealed the drugs during shipping. This effectively turned the community feedback mechanism into a quality-control system for drug trafficking that explicitly rewarded avoiding postal detection. The US Postal Inspection Service is one of the four agencies listed in the DOJ’s sentencing announcement; its involvement in the investigation is a direct consequence of how much of the platform’s activity moved through the mail.

The Bitcoin and the Gold Bars

Hamilton agreed to forfeit 1,230 Bitcoin and 24.4 Ether, along with three Virginia properties including his residence in Suffolk, electronic devices, and cash.

Pavey’s forfeiture is larger. He agreed to surrender 1,584 Bitcoin, two boxes containing 25-ounce gold bars, three automobiles, and two Florida properties.

Combined, Hamilton and Pavey are forfeiting 2,814 Bitcoin at current prices, which represents over $250 million in cryptocurrency alone. The gold bars add a detail that speaks to how operators of platforms this size think storing value: diversifying out of cryptocurrency into physical assets that can’t be seized through a blockchain transaction trace.

This pattern of diversified asset holding- cryptocurrency, real estate, precious metals- is consistent with what we see across large-scale dark web operation prosecutions. The Ransom Cartel case involving Maksim Silnikau similarly showed proceeds deployed across multiple asset classes.

The Sentence in Context

Forty years. Hamilton is 30 years old. He will be 70 before he becomes eligible for release under a full term, though federal sentencing typically involves good-time credits and potential sentence reduction.

The sentence is one of the longest ever imposed specifically for operating a dark web marketplace. For comparison, Ross Ulbricht received life in prison for running Silk Road in 2015. However, Silk Road was substantially larger, and Ulbricht’s conviction included murder-for-hire solicitation charges alongside drug trafficking. Hamilton’s 40-year term is driven primarily by the drug trafficking at scale and the specific quantities of fentanyl involved.

Fentanyl weight receives particular attention in federal drug sentencing because the quantities required for a lethal dose are measured in micrograms; a gram of fentanyl represents thousands of potential fatal doses. The 13-plus kilograms attributed to Empire Market’s operations is a figure that federal prosecutors treat differently from equivalent weights of other controlled substances. The mandatory minimum for the drug conspiracy charge Hamilton pleaded to was ten years. The 40-year sentence reflects the court’s view of the scale and the specific danger of the substances involved.

US Attorney Andrew S. Boutros confirmed the sentence. “This case demonstrates that those who use the anonymity of the dark web to profit from the misery and death of others will be held accountable.”

What Happens With Thomas Pavey

Thomas Pavey, 41, of Ormond Beach, Florida, who operated under the alias “Dopenugget,” pleaded guilty in 2024 or 2025 to the same federal drug conspiracy charge and has been awaiting sentencing.

He is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Seeger later this month, in October 2026.

Pavey’s forfeiture package includes more Bitcoin than Hamilton’s, 1,584 versus 1,230, plus the gold bars, vehicles, and Florida real estate. His sentence will provide the second data point on how Judge Seeger views both operators’ culpability. Pavey pleaded guilty earlier than Hamilton; whether that timing difference affects the sentence remains an open question.

The AlphaBay-to-Empire Pipeline

Empire Market’s origins matter for understanding the broader dark web ecosystem history. AlphaBay was shut down in 2017 in what was then described as the largest dark web marketplace takedown ever. Europol and US law enforcement presented it as a major disruption.

Within months, Empire Market launched as a functional replacement, built by former AlphaBay users. This pattern has repeated consistently across dark web marketplace history: a shutdown creates a market gap, experienced operators fill it, and the ecosystem continues with different infrastructure.

Empire Market itself shut down in August 2020, not because of law enforcement action, but apparently through an exit scam, with the administrators disappearing and taking vendor and buyer balances. The investigation and prosecution that led to Hamilton’s sentence unfolded over the years that followed, built from the financial trail left by cryptocurrency transactions that tumbling services could obscure but not erase.

As we’ve covered in looking at Operation Alice’s takedown of 373,000 dark web sites , law enforcement’s approach to dark web infrastructure has evolved significantly since 2017. The Hamilton case adds another data point: the sentences for operating at this scale are now measured in decades, not years.