As Europol’s Rob Wainwright noted, users flocked to Hansa expecting refuge, only to be swept up in a trap. On July 19 20, 2017 the Dutch and Europol publicly announced Hansa’s takedown, having collected data on 10,000 buyer addresses and seized 1,000 BTC in escrow. Simultaneously, Dutch police quietly took over Hansa Market, a Tor site popular in Europe in June 2017. The site’s creator, Alexandre Cazes, was arrested in Thailand on July 5 and later died in custody.
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In a pair of press releases posted on Tuesday, the US Department of Justice and Europol said the joint effort also resulted in the shutdown of the dark web marketplace, Monopoly Market. Operation SpecTor spanned nine countries and brought down the illegal dark web marketplace Monopoly Market. During the investigation, federal law enforcement seized cryptocurrency valued at $75 million at the time of the seizures and cash and precious metals. Thousands of vendors advertised goods and services on Empire Market, including controlled substances, compromised and stolen account credentials, stolen and counterfeit credit card information, and counterfeit currency. On the page for each listing, users could pick a predefined quantity of the drug chosen by the vendor, typically measured in grams or number of pills, and proceed to checkout. Archetyp was seized by the BKA in June 2025 in an operation called Operation Deep Sentinel.
Dark Web Drug Busts Lead To 150 Arrests
Archetyp's website went down ostensibly for maintenance late last week, sparking fears among users that the admin was pulling an exit scam – taking all user and vendor market balances and disappearing. The suspected admin of the operations owns property in Hanover and Bucharest too, all of which were searched by domestic law enforcement. “The FDA is committed to continuing its work to disrupt and dismantle the illegal sales of drugs on the dark web, where such sales far too often have tragic consequences,” said the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations Kansas City Special Agent in Charge Charles Grinstead. “For nearly four years, Rui-Siang Lin allegedly operated Incognito Market, one of the largest online platforms for narcotics sales, conducting $100 million in illicit narcotics transactions and reaping millions of dollars in personal profits,” said FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge James Smith. “The dedicated prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and our law enforcement partners will pursue criminal actors regardless of whether they operate on street corners or in the dark corners of the internet. “As alleged, Rui-Siang Lin was the architect of Incognito, a $100 million dark web scheme to traffic deadly drugs to the U.S. and around the world.
Arrested In Global Crackdown On Dark Web Drug Market
- At the time, German authorities arrested the site’s alleged operators and two of its most prolific vendors.
- According to the indictment, financial transactions on Empire Market used cryptocurrency to conceal the nature of the transactions and the identities of Empire Market administrators, moderators, vendors, and buyers.
- “The FDA is committed to continuing its work to disrupt and dismantle the illegal sales of drugs on the dark web, where such sales far too often have tragic consequences,” said the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations Kansas City Special Agent in Charge Charles Grinstead.
- Operation SpecTor spanned nine countries and brought down the illegal dark web marketplace Monopoly Market.
- When looking at crypto inflows to DNMs in 2024, the data indicate that wholesale drug purchases were dominant, averaging between 71 and 81% of this year’s total market share.
The indictment charges Pavey and Hamilton with conspiring with each other and others to engage in drug trafficking, computer fraud, access device fraud, counterfeiting, and money laundering. “HSI New York’s El Dorado Task Force Dark Web and Cryptocurrency investigators are equipped with the skills to identify money laundering, cybercrimes, and other illicit schemes and in turn prevent such offenses from impacting the safety and security of Americans. WASHINGTON – Ten defendants have been arrested – and 11 total are in custody – pursuant to a nine-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed today charging a former Olympic snowboarder… This operation was aided by non-operational supporting participation from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and U.S. Operation SpecTor was a collaborative initiative across JCODE members, including the Department of Justice, FBI, DEA, USPIS, HSI, IRS-CI, ATF, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
Abacus Market: Facilitating Illicit Drug Trade
In this capacity, Parsarad established Nemesis and held full control over the marketplace and its virtual currency wallets. Law enforcement warns that no site is safe previous markets even the biggest ones have all eventually fallen. The takeaway is that big darknet busts now require synchronized international action. Operation Deep Sentinel June 2025 was the Europe led operation that seized Archetyp Market. On Apr 5, 2022, German police with US help seized Hydra’s servers and crypto wallets. It dominated Russian and Eastern European trade in drugs and stolen data.
AlphaBay & Hansa 2014 2017 Operation Bayonet
🚨BREAKING🚨Nemesis Market, a top 5 darknet market, has been seized. The spaceship blows up the marketplace logo and then vanishes from the screen, leaving behind a QR code that links to the website for the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), or German federal police. No matter where criminals hide, we will find them, dismantle their operations, and bring them to justice. In addition, the United States and international law enforcement partners made 270 arrests of dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. Abacus launched in September 2021 as ‘Alphabet Market,’ and gradually increased its popularity, especially as the number of other markets on the dark web dwindled, mostly as a result of law enforcement actions.
That shift resulted in the arrest of some seemingly significant players in the dark web drug trade. In 2018, Dutch police actually ran Hansa themselves for nearly a month. (The name is a pun on Tor, the anonymity browser that enables dark web access.) Last year’s Operation DisrupTor netted a similar number of arrests and double the drug seizures. Operation Dark HunTor isn’t the first international bust of its kind.
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“Under the promise of anonymity, Lin’s alleged operation offered the purchase of lethal drugs and fraudulent prescription medication on a global scale. “As alleged, Rui-Siang Lin operated a sophisticated and dangerous online narcotics marketplace through which he profited millions of dollars at the community’s expense,” said U.S. “Measures” were taken against one alleged moderator, and six people described as “the marketplace’s highest vendors”. Formerly, Dream Market had been considered the second-largest darknet marketplace, with AlphaBay being the largest and Hansa the third-largest. Archetyp’s takedown might make headlines, but it won’t stop the trade of illicit drugs on the dark web.
How Boutique Darknet Markets Are Making Drug Busts Harder
While displaced AlphaBay users flocked to Hansa for their fix, Dutch authorities spent weeks logging their activity, including many of their home addresses. In 2017, Dutch police took control of Hansa, a booming darknet market, and the FBI shut down AlphaBay, an even larger competitor. At the time, German authorities arrested the site’s alleged operators and two of its most prolific vendors. In August 2020 Empire suddenly exit-scammed with the darknet markets disappearance.
Operation RapTor: The Largest Darknet Takedown In History
TRM has identified structured withdrawals from the market to personal wallets and then to services with less stringent KYC. As DOJ noted, the conspiracy involved laundering darknet proceeds through exchanges and peer-to-peer brokers. While this week’s takedown recalls the 2013 shutdown of Silk Road, the evolution of darknet commerce is stark. Incognito, like other modern darknet platforms, operated entirely on cryptocurrency—primarily Bitcoin and Monero. With the right partnerships, tools, and pressure at key chokepoints—such as when crypto is converted into fiat—law enforcement can still follow the money, identify key actors, and dismantle networks once thought untouchable. He later pleaded guilty to narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell adulterated and misbranded medications in the Southern District of New York.
Tragically, investigators linked at least one confirmed overdose death directly to his operation. When federal agents moved in, they seized $330,000 in cash, industrial pill press machines, and nearly 110,000 fake pills. Officials are calling Operation RapTor the most successful JCODE effort yet, both in terms of the sheer amount of contraband seized and the number of suspects apprehended. They may also raise privacy and surveillance concerns, warning that aggressive cyber policies risk collateral impacts on online freedom and legitimate users of anonymity technologies.
Authorities arrested 123 North Americans, including two in Canada, and a further 58 in Europe; in Germany, authorities arrested 42. They seized $6.5 million in crypto and cash, 500kg in drugs—274kg of which was seized in the US, and the 63 guns. The US Department of Justice announced the results of a darknet market bust. Leading up to the operation announced Tuesday, German and U.S. authorities took down the “ Hydra ” dark web market in April last year. “As law enforcement authorities gained access to the vendors’ extensive buyer lists, thousands of customers across the globe are now at risk of prosecution as well.” It seized 50.8 million euros ($53.4 million) in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kilograms of drugs, and 117 firearms were seized in a series of raids in several countries.
