It can't be that both affirmations have negative connotation:
"Monero can be 100% anonymous, so it's the preferred coin of criminals"
"Monero is not 100% anonymous, so big time criminals can't use it."
Anonymity is not something you either have or don't have. It's always relative to an anonymity set. Mathematically, a ring signature provides a guarantee of anonymity within the ring.
I think the rise of darknet drug dealers is something positive. They're less dangerous than street drug dealers.