After darknet marketplace AlphaBay went offline on July 4, many of its users migrated to Hansa Market — in addition to played correct into the hands of an “Operation Bayonet,” a coordinated international law enforcement action. Today, both the U.S. Department of Justice in addition to the Europol published press releases stating that Hansa Market has also been near down.
According to the U.S. of A. Department of Justice, the activeness was led yesteryear the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in addition to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), amongst law enforcement regime inward Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, the United Kingdom, French Republic in addition to the Europol participating inward the operation. Bayonet’s focus was takedown of both Hansa Market in addition to AlphaBay inward the course of teaching of the same multi-agency investigation.
“This is an outstanding success yesteryear regime inward Europe in addition to the U.S. of A. The capability of drug traffickers in addition to other serious criminals about the reason has taken a serious hitting today after a highly sophisticated articulation activeness inward multiple countries. By acting together on a global footing the law enforcement community has sent a clear message that nosotros attain got the agency to position criminality in addition to strike back, fifty-fifty inward areas of the Dark Web. There are to a greater extent than of these operations to come,” Rob Wainwright, the executive manager of Europol, said today at a articulation press conference amongst the U.S. of A. Attorney General, the acting FBI manager in addition to the deputy manager of the DEA inward Washington, D.C.
According to Europol’s press release, the European agency provided Dutch regime amongst an investigation Pb on the Hansa Market inward 2016. Europol allegedly acquired the data amongst the assist of Bitdefender, an cyberspace safety fellowship advising Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). Investigators managed to locate the infrastructure of the darknet marketplace inward the Netherlands, which resulted inward the arrest of ii administrators of the site inward Germany. Hansa’s servers were seized inward the Netherlands, Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany in addition to Lithuania.
Furthermore, Dutch law enforcement acquired data on “high value targets in addition to delivery addresses for a large number of orders.” With the assist of Europol, the Dutch National Police collected data on some 10,000 unusual addresses of Hansa Market customers. In a covert action, Dutch law enforcement took command of Hansa a calendar month ago, allowing investigators to monitor in addition to gain data on the users of the marketplace without their knowledge.
Casting a Wider Net
It seems regime planned their actions carefully since Hansa was already nether their command when AlphaBay went offline on July 4. Europol stated that the Dutch National Police “could position in addition to disrupt the regular criminal activity on Hansa merely in addition to thus also sweep upwards all those novel users displaced from AlphaBay who were looking for a novel trading platform.”
“The Dutch National Police attain got located Hansa Market in addition to taken over command of this marketplace since June 20, 2017. We attain got modified the root code, which allowed us to capture passwords, PGP-encrypted guild information, IP-Addresses, Bitcoins in addition to other relevant data that may assist law enforcement agencies worldwide to position users of this marketplace. For to a greater extent than data almost this operation, delight consult our hidden service at http://ift.tt/2eTA9bY,” Dutch regime wrote on the seized Hansa website.
In total, 38,000 transactions were identified yesteryear Europol, who in addition to thus alerted other agencies inward 600 cases. Furthermore, Europol stated they attain got prepared “intelligence packages” to endure sent out to “law enforcement partners across 37 countries, spawning many follow-up investigations across Europe in addition to beyond.”
AlphaBay went offline on July 4. At the time, many users suspected it was an larn out scam. Authorities announced the arrest of the Alexandre Cazes, 26, the alleged administrator of the website, who was afterwards flora dead inward his jail cellular telephone inward Thailand. On the 24-hour interval of Cazes’s arrest, law enforcement took downward servers of the nighttime spider web marketplace inward Canada, the Netherlands in addition to Thailand.
Darknet marketplaces attain got generated massive police line rut after unsafe synthetic drugs, such equally fentanyl — the heart at the middle of drug epidemics inward multiple countries, including Canada in addition to the U.S. of A. — were constantly offered for sale on the websites. The statements of U.S. of A. Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the articulation press loose inward Washington, D.C., confirm this assumption.
“Among other challenges, our smashing province is currently inward the midst of the deadliest drug crisis inward our history. One American directly dies of a drug overdose every eleven minutes in addition to to a greater extent than than 2 meg Americans are addicted to prescription painkillers. Every day, equally a number of drug abuse, American families are existence bankrupted, friendships broken in addition to promising lives cutting short,” he said.
“As of before this year, 122 vendors advertised fentanyl in addition to 238 advertised heroin, in addition to nosotros know of several Americans who were killed yesteryear drugs sold on AlphaBay.”
Sessions asserted that his department’s locomote is non yet finished in addition to issued a warning to people all the same attain to engage inward illegal activity on the nighttime web. “We volition direct house to find, arrest, prosecute, convict in addition to incarcerate criminals, drug traffickers in addition to their enablers, wherever they are. The nighttime network is non a house to hide. We volition role every tool nosotros attain got to halt criminals from exploiting vulnerable people in addition to sending thus many Americans to an early on grave.”
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