Operation Bayonet (Darknet)

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Operation Bayonet was a multinational covert operation in 2017 in which Europol, in cooperation with the US DEA and the Dutch National Police, finally succeeded in closing the darknet markets AlphaBay and Hansa and confiscating their infrastructure in June / July 2017 . The operation also resulted in the closure of many other, smaller darknet markets and spanned Thailand , the United States , the Netherlands and Canada .

In the course of the investigation, the alleged founder of AlphaBay, the Canadian citizen Alexandre Cazes, was arrested and detained. Just a few days after his arrest, he was found dead in his cell in Thailand. Suicide is suspected to be the cause of death.

According to the investigator for the local authorities of the Netherlands , Martijn Egberts, around 10,000 addresses of buyers on Hansa outside the Netherlands were found. During this time, the police continued sales and purchases on Hansa (during this time the number rose from 1,000 to 8,000 per day) in order to obtain evidence for future conviction of users. By modifying the source code , she managed to obtain user passwords, PGP-encrypted messages, bitcoins , IP addresses and other “relevant” information. This information is intended to enable law enforcement agencies worldwide to identify users of the darknet market. In addition, the information that was obtained could be used to close seller accounts in other darknet markets.

Since the site was closed, a so-called "seizure notice" and the link to the "hidden service" of the Dutch police politiepcvh42eav.onion/hansafaq.html have been displayed, under the user more information about the operation can find out.

According to Europol, these two sites have been responsible for exchanging a total of over 350,000 prohibited goods since their inception in 2014, with a total transaction volume of one billion dollars (estimated). Drugs, weapons, stolen credit cards (and data) and malware, among other things, were traded. This operation was one of the most sophisticated of its kind, according to Europol.

Europol announced that there would be hundreds of new investigations in Europe as a result of the operation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nick Statt: Dark Web drug marketplace AlphaBay was shut down by law enforcement. July 14, 2017. Retrieved August 30, 2017 .
  2. ^ Robert McMillan, Aruna Viswanatha: Illegal-Goods Website AlphaBay Shut Following Law-Enforcement Action . In: Wall Street Journal . July 13, 2017, ISSN  0099-9660 ( wsj.com [accessed August 30, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Raphael Satter, Frank Bajak: Dutch 'darknet' drug marketplace shut down . July 21, 2017.
  4. ↑ Mike Riggs: Five Lessons from the Hansa and AlphaBay Busts . July 26, 2017.
  5. ↑ Info from the Dutch police on Darknet. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on August 31, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / politiepcvh42eav.onion  
  6. ^ Dutch National Prosecution Service and police launch Hidden Service in global Darknet enforcement operation . October 31, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2017. 
  7. ^ Hansa Market Taken Down in Global Law Enforcement Operation . 20th July 2016. 
  8. ↑ europol.europa.eu Press release from Europol, accessed on 30 August 2017.