From the article you linked:
Through the sophisticated tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CI special agents were able to determine the location of the Darknet server, identify the administrator of the website and ultimately track down the website server’s physical location in South Korea
How do you propose blockchain analysis is able to "track down a server's physical location", given the blockchain does not stored geolocation, IP addresses, or any other such identifiers? It is quite clear they were using data from other sources to identify the server in question.
And then:
The agencies have shared data from the seized server with law enforcement around the world to assist in identifying and prosecuting customers of the site.
Data from the server was what led to the arrest of individuals, not blockchain analysis.
Those who got charged do you think were innocent and the deep bad state just decided to flip a coin and charge random people ?
No, and I obviously have nothing against people committing non-victimless crimes going to prison. Especially not in cases such as this. These individuals can rot in hell.
However, that still doesn't give the state the right to constantly surveil all its citizens.
As for the mixers , it's sad to see many people here claim that mixers is a tool to protect privacy , that kind of users that have nothing illegal to hide are just providing exit liquidity to criminals .
No offense meant, but "nothing to fear, nothing to hide" is a monumentally stupid argument. If you truly have nothing to hide, I'm sure you'll have no issue whatsoever sharing with me your real name, address, phone number, email address, bank statements, all your bitcoin addresses, all your WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/etc. conversations, your internet browsing history, and the login details for all your social media accounts. I just want to have a good look around and publicly post anything I find interesting. After all, you've got nothing to hide, right!?