To escape the chaos of her Russian childhood, Lili Infante became an American law enforcement prodigy. She pioneered the DEA’s investigations of the dark web—never suspecting who she’d find hiding there.
Lili Infante was, for years, the DEA’s star crypto detective. She helped build cases against dark web drug traffickers, money launderers, and even a fentanyl supplier who’d once been a rising star in the Russian hacker underground. She was good at her job, so good that she was quietly promoted to a special unit within the DEA dedicated to tracing the flow of illicit funds through the blockchain.
Then, in late 2022, Infante began investigating a series of cryptocurrency transactions linked to a dark web marketplace called Hydra, a Russian-language site known for selling drugs and stolen data. The transactions were small, but frequent, and they were all funneled through a single cryptocurrency wallet. Infante and her team started to trace the wallet’s movements, following the digital breadcrumbs across multiple blockchains.
What they discovered was stunning. The wallet wasn’t linked to a criminal enterprise, or a foreign government, or even a sophisticated hacker. It was linked to her brother.
“I was in shock,” Infante told WIRED. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Her brother, Maxim, had been living in Russia for years, and she hadn’t spoken to him in almost a decade. She knew he was involved in some shady dealings, but she had no idea he was operating a cryptocurrency mixing service that was actively helping criminals launder their money.
Infante was now faced with an impossible choice: arrest her brother, or let him continue to operate his illegal business. She knew that if she arrested him, she would be destroying her family. But she also knew that she had a duty to uphold the law.
She decided to do the right thing. She worked with her team to build a case against her brother, gathering evidence of his illegal activities. In February 2023, Maxim was arrested in Russia.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Infante said. “But I knew it was the right thing to do.”
The case against Maxim is ongoing, but Infante has no regrets. She says she is proud of her work, and she is grateful for the support of her colleagues and her family.
“I’m just glad I was able to do my job,” she said. “And I’m glad that my brother is finally being held accountable for his actions.”