Dutch cops reveal takedown of 'world's largest dark web market'
- Reference: 1728541814
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/10/10/cannabia_bohemia_darkweb_market_investigation/
- Source link:
The arrests came after an investigation that opened in 2022 and saw Dutch Police identify servers related to the souks in the Netherlands. The Politie – Dutch for Police – allege the sites dealt in illicit goods including drugs (primarily cannabis) and DDOS tools, and described them as "the largest and longest running international dark web market of all time worldwide.”
Police determined the sites carried out around 67,000 transactions each month, with record turnover of €12 million achieved in September 2023. Dutch police think the administrators personally made around €5 million from the operation before pulling the exit scam.
[1]
The operators of Bohemia and Cannabia apparently became aware of the Politie probe, which disrupted their operations, so in 2023 they allegedly pulled an "exit scam" that saw them close the services and make off with the operations’ funds.
[2]
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That exit didn’t stop investigators from the Netherlands, Ireland, UK and the USA, leading to two arrests of suspected administrators.
[4]Alleged $100M dark-web drug kingpin, 23, arrested
[5]Suspected bosses of $430M dark-web Empire Market charged in US
[6]BreachForums returns just weeks after FBI-led takedown
[7]Two cuffed in Samourai Wallet crypto dirty money sting
One was cuffed in the Netherlands and appeared in a Rotterdam court on Thursday.
The other was arrested in Ireland.
"Administrators, sellers and buyers of and on illegal marketplaces often believe themselves to be elusive to the police and the judiciary," [8]said Stan Duijf, head of the operations unit of the National Investigation and Interventions
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"By conducting criminal investigations and prosecuting these criminals, it becomes clear that the dark web is not at all as anonymous as users may think. Due to international cooperation, the credibility and reliability of these markets have once again been severely damaged." ®
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/21/incognito_market_arrest_charge/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/empire_market_arrests/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/28/breachforums_back_online/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/25/samourai_wallet_laundering_charges/
[8] https://www.politie.nl/nieuws/2024/oktober/8/11-internationale-actie-tegen-werelds-grootste-darkweb-markt-bohemia-cannabia.html
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[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The noose is closing
Maybe dumb criminals. The internet can still offer anonymity should it be required and quite often does. That is until they forget to activate whatever measures they are using when logging into something like twitter.
I would say the police are getting better but only with high value targets.
Re: The noose is closing
I read your comment in the voice of Sheriff John Bunnell from World's Wildest Police Videos.
Re: The noose and the nets are tightening and closing in to choke and surround the deplorable
EVERYONE needs note ..... the Internet guarantees nothing and no one impunity and immunity against predatory and prosecutorial action, even should any present day and past inherited powers that be imagine and believe themselves exceptional and untouchable ...... which clearly so many quite obviously do.
Stupid is as stupid does, and apparently, according to Einstein, that is endless and a systemic vulnerability available for milking and bilking/exploiting and taking rewarding unfair advantage of ..... whenever either able or enabled to be considerably smarter than was ever before even imagined to be possible and quite normal.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” ...... Albert Einstein [who many might truly believe would certainly know quite a lot more than anyone else about all of that]
Since I am now old enough that all the people I bought weed from 50 years ago are dead of old age, I use the so-called dark web to get cannabis. I can get a home delivery quicker than Tesco. The park nearest my house has lovely wee 4 inch (10cm for you youngsters) stickers with nice pictures of a cannabis leaf, and a QR code. Same-day delivery. I note that rival 'gangs' tear off or obliterate the QR code and substitute their own.
The occasional exit scam is less overhead than the time and money one used to spend chasing down a dealer. Quality and weight much better than the 'old days'.
Nothing is as anonymous as you think it is on the internet. It can't be - you have to have the address of both ends of the connection for things to work. There are tools like TOR that can obfuscate that somewhat, but even they aren't absolutely perfect - some nations might have the kind of hardware and connectivity needed to track the connections over TOR (not that it would be easy or cheap to do so.)
The noose is closing
Criminals may wish to take note : the days where the Internet was a guarantee of immunity against law enforcement are well and truly over.
If you show up on the police's radar, they will get to you.