Both men charged with co-creating the dark web marketplace Empire Market have now pleaded guilty to federal drug conspiracy charges. Raheim Hamilton, 30, of Suffolk, Virginia, entered his guilty plea in a Chicago federal court this week, closing the book on one of the major cybercrime cases of the early 2020s. Prosecutors said the market was responsible for $430 million in transactions involving illicit goods such as heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, counterfeit currency and stolen credit card information. Empire Market suddenly disappeared in the summer of 2020, with operators stealing an estimated $30 million in bitcoin from users. Empire Market arose after the takedown of the notorious AlphaBay market in 2017, with Hamilton (aka “Sydney” and “ZeroAngel”) and Pavey (aka “Dopenugget”) modeling their site after it.