Tech

The Hunt for the Kingpin Behind AlphaBay, Part 6: Endgame


The direct spillover effects of that explosion of accusatory data, carried over so many organizations’ records, are not easy to track. But in the years that followed, Grant Rabenn, who served as custodian of the files the Justice Department had assembled from Operation Bayonet, said he received requests for that information as part of dozens of cases that agencies across the United States are still pursuing.

A series of famous, large-scale dark web scourges will follow. All of these operations were carried out by a new group known as JCODE, or Dark Cyber ​​and Drug Enforcement, which brings together agents from the FBI, DEA, Department of Homeland Security, Service US Postal Inspector and half a dozen other federal agencies: in 2018, Chaotic Activity; in 2019, SaboTor Campaign; in 2020, DisrupTor Campaign. In total, according to the FBI, those enforcement campaigns would eventually result in more than 240 arrests, 160 “knock and deal” cases, and the seizure of more than 1,700 pounds of drugs, along with $13.5 million in cash. and electronic money.

But Hansa’s operation is not without costs. Besides the huge manpower and resources that Operation Bayonet requires, it also requires a group of Dutch policemen to become the bosses of the dark web. For nearly a month, they have facilitated the sale of an untold quantity of deadly drugs to unidentified buyers around the world. Even when they compromised with Hansa, Hansa also compromised with them.

Did the Dutch police feel that uncleanness—the uncleanness that perhaps accompanies any covert work? At least, some people describe feeling surprisingly non-contradictory about their roles. Team leader, Petra Haandrikman, said: “Honestly, it was very interesting. After all, Dutch prosecutors looked at the case, weighed its ethics, and gave them the green light. Thereafter, the police concerned felt they could push this operation as far as possible with a clear conscience.

Dutch police indicated that they had banned the particularly lethal opioid fentanyl from Hansa while it was under their control, in an effort to minimize the harm they could be responsible for—a move which Hansa users really welcome. In reality, however, that ban was put in place just days before the end of their clandestine operation. Until then, for more than three weeks, that extremely dangerous drug continues to be offered on the site with no guarantee that all its orders will be blocked.

And how do the police feel about that decision to monitor the drug trade instead of shutting down Hansa and stopping the transactions altogether?

“They happen anyway,” said Gert Ras without hesitation, “but in a different market.”

During these years Since then, dark web observers have been trying to determine the extent to which Operation Bayonet really disrupted that endless swapping of markets, the cycle of raids, rebuilds, and repeats. customary. Whether AlphaBay’s tightly coordinated global takedown—or anything else—could end or even slow down the eternal seashell game that law enforcement agencies have been playing for years, with a constantly new market ready to attract end users?

At the very least, one study has suggested that the AlphaBay and Hansa takedowns have a longer-lasting impact than previous dark web takedowns. The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, abbreviated as TNO, has found that when other markets are captured, such as Silk Road or Silk Road 2, most of the country’s drug suppliers soon they will appear on other dark drug websites. But the salespeople who fled Hansa after Bayonet’s one-two punch didn’t reappear, or if they did, they were forced to wipe out their identities and reputations, rebuilding themselves from scratch. “Compared to both the Silk Road takedown, or even the AlphaBay takedown, the Hansa Market closure stands out in a positive way,” the TNO report reads. “We are seeing the first signs of game-changing police intervention.”

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