Authorities close largest online arms and drug market

The largest marketplace in darknetwhere hundreds of thousands of criminals anonymously bought and sold drugs, weapons, hacking tools, stolen identities and many other illegal goods and services, was closed as a result of one of the most complex, but coordinated operations by law enforcement agencies around the world. Reports about it FBI.

In early July, many computer servers around the world that used the site were seized AlphaBayand the site’s creator and administrator, 25, a Canadian citizen, Alexander Kazes, who lived in Thailand, was arrested.

AlphaBay he worked for over two years and had transactions exceeding 1 a billion dollars in bitcoins and other digital currencies. The site, which used the anonymous TOR browser, was the main source of supply of heroin and fentanyl.

Sales going through the site AlphaBay have been associated with multiple deaths from overdose in the United States.

FBI acting director Andrew McCabe told a news conference that it was a very important operation.

“We are talking about a multitude of servers in different countries, about a hundred million cryptocurrencies and drug trafficking that spread throughout the world through darknet».

In order to close this online market and stop the flow of sales of illicit goods, a huge team of experts has joined: a special team of FBI agents, intelligence analysts, support staff, domestic and international law enforcement partners.

«AlphaBay was truly a global site. Sellers around the world took orders and shipped products anywhere in the world,” said Special Agent Nicholas Firipidis, one of the FBI Sacramento detectives who worked on the case.

"The website appeared in December 2014 of the year and was the result of earlier darker marketplaces, such as Silk Road. In order to AlphaBay gained momentum, it only took six months. But after that it grew exponentially,” Firipidis said.

The scheme of work AlphaBay. Photo: fbi.gov

Serviced by AlphaBay there were over 200 thousands of users and 40 thousands of suppliers. During the seizure of servers, 250 found thousands of drug and toxic chemicals listings, as well as thousands of 100 listings for stolen documents, counterfeit goods, malware and other means of hacking computers and firearms. For comparison, Silk Road at closing time in 2013, there were about 14 thousands of listings.

Server Capture Operation AlphaBay led the FBI and included the joint work of law enforcement in Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, France, as well as Interpol.

Creator and admin AlphaBay, Alexander Kazes, who by name Alpha02 и admin online, was arrested by the Thai authorities on behalf of the US 5 July 2017.

Since AlphaBay worked in an anonymous TOR network, administrators were confident that they could hide the site server locations and user IDs.

“They felt so protected by the dark technology of the Internet that they believed they could get away with their crimes,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Chris Thomas.

The FBI and its partners used a combination of traditional investigative techniques as well as sophisticated new tools for hacking and locking AlphaBay.

Capture operation AlphaBay coincided with the attempts of the Dutch law enforcement agencies to close the market Hansa, another famous market darknetwhich was used to facilitate the sale of illegal drugs, malware and other illegal services. After blocking AlphaBay criminal users and sellers flocked to the market Hansawhere they hoped to remain incognito.

“Taking down two large online black markets at once is no small feat, and it took a lot of effort, a lot of experience and a lot of teamwork,” said Acting FBI McCabe.

“As our level of teamwork and coordination shows, we will go to the ends of the earth to find these people and stop them,” he added.

They say about Kazes in his homeland in Quebec, as IT-geniuses, but the intelligence services of the USA, Canada and Thailand were able to reach him only by e-mail [email protected]. This address appeared in the welcome message after registering on the site and when users lost their password.

In addition to the fact that the address itself contains the name and year of birth, it was not difficult for the Canadian authorities to find out who owns the account on Hotmail - Alexander Kazes, born 19 October 1991 of the year.

After being arrested by the Thai police, he hanged himself in a prison cell.

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