The Hunt for the Dark Web’s Biggest Kingpin, Part 1: The Shadow
PROLOGUE ON THE MORNING of July 5, 2017, a gray Toyota Camry slowly turned into the cul-de-sac of a quiet neighborhood in Bangkok—a moderately upscale subdivision on the western edge of the city, where the pulsating capital's downtown high-rises began to flatten out into highways and canals snaking through tropical forest and farmlands. Behind the wheel sat a woman who went by the nickname Nueng. A slight, 46-year-old agent of the Royal Thai Police with a short, boyish haircut, she wore a white polo shirt and black pants rather than her usual military-style uniform. Both she and the female officer beside her in the passenger seat were working undercover. COURTESY OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE This story is excerpted from the forthcoming book Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency , available November 15, 2022, from Doubleday. Nueng's heart pounded. For more than two years, law enforcement agents from around the worl...