The darknet’s AlphaBay has gone black after alleged admin Alexander Cazes, a Canadian national, supposedly hung himself with a towel in Thailand.
Cazes was recently taken into custody and the US wanted him extradited. Users were given advice to go other darknet sites such as Hansa Market. But Hansa too was taken over by law enforcement and is also down.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the Dutch National Police with Europol were responsible for removing the websites with their 350,000-plus illicit commodities.
“Millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies were frozen and seized” authorities said. “On average, 1000 orders were made per day … Since the acquisition of Hansa Market’s management, more than 50,000 transactions have been counted, especially for soft and hard drugs.”
Authorities, as per Europol’s press release, believe they have damaged darknet markets considerably.
“As a law enforcement strategy, leveraging the combined operational and technical strengths of multiple agencies in the US and Europe, it has been an extraordinary success.”
However there are other ways of buying and selling illicit commodities on the darknet and authorities will continue to face challenges going forward. Ultimately it may be better to legalize what doesn’t harm others, and that probably includes a large amount of darknet purchases.
Cybercurrencies will continue to evolve, and law enforcement makes them more valuable when it simply outright bans many of the products that cybercurrencies purchase.
blockcitynews.com