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‘Dark’ Network of Illegal Websites Targeted by U.S. and European Police ‘Dark’ Network of Illegal Websites Targeted by U.S. and European Police
(about 2 hours later)
PARIS — An international task force of investigators pressed a series of raids and arrests on Friday in 16 countries aimed at shutting down a secret network of websites that matched anonymous sellers and buyers in a thriving black market. PARIS — An international task force executed a series of raids and arrests in 16 countries on Friday aimed at shutting down a secret network of websites. These so-called dark sites matched anonymous sellers and buyers in a thriving black market for illicit goods and services including drugs, stolen credit cards, weapons and killers for hire.
The latest phase of the investigation, named Operation Onymous, targeted mostly sellers of illicit goods and information, including drugs, stolen credit card numbers and weapons. The investigation, nicknamed Operation Onymous, targeted mostly sellers and deactivated upward of 50 websites like Silk Road 2.0, Mr. Quid’s Forum, Paypal Center, Cannabis Road Markets and Blue Sky, according to Europol.
It closed upward of 50 sites with names like Silk Road 2.0, Mr. Quid’s Forum, Paypal Center, Cannabis Road Markets and Blue Sky, according to Europol, the European Union’s police agency, which is based in The Hague. Across Europe and the United States, at least 17 sellers were arrested this week and law enforcement authorities seized Bitcoins valued at $1 million along with gold, cash and drugs, according to Troels Oerting, who heads Europol’s cybercrime center.
Across Europe, 17 sellers were arrested and the law enforcement authorities seized Bitcoins valued at $1 million, along with gold, cash and drugs, according to Troels Oerting, who leads Europol’s cybercrime unit. The investigation had been underway for several months as the dark market “mushroomed,” Mr. Oerting said, “And we had to find a way to see how we could strike back.”
The so-called dark market “mushroomed” in recent months with an increase of web pages on a hidden network called Tor, Mr. Oerting said, “and we had to find a way to see how we could strike back.” The operation was led by American agencies — the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Investigations — and coordinated by Europol in the various European countries with raids that started on Wednesday and Thursday but blossomed into a broad sweep by Friday. Working in English as a common language, investigators made arrests in Eastern and Western Europe, including France, Germany, Spain, and England.
“The business model is to create web stores on these hidden services and then use the normal transport to deliver it,” Mr. Oerting added. He noted that sellers mimicked conventional services, offering a system to review and rate the quality of service to discourage cheating. Mr. Oerting declined to say how law enforcement authorities had cracked the dark websites despite the sites’ use of anonymous Tor software. But its penetration by law enforcement agencies, which have now managed to lift the anonymity coveted by users for both good and bad purposes, sent shivers through users of a formerly darkened corner of the web universe.
The operation was led by American agencies — the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Investigations — and coordinated by Europol to organize raids that started on Thursday and continued Friday. The Tor browser, originally developed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory, is an open source project that permits people to use the Internet without revealing their location. It is used not only for dark purposes, but also by those such as whistle-blowers and political activists seeking to avoid censorship by government agencies.
The raids came after a California man was arrested Wednesday and charged Thursday with operating a successor to the original Silk Road website, a Bitcoin-based black market where drug sales and other illegal activity had flourished. Tor cannot be entered through regular web browsers. To access Tor, users need special software known as the Tor Browser bundle. The name Tor is an acronym for “the onion router,” a reference to the layers of encryption on the network.
Silk Road 2.0 was formed last November “to fill the void” left by the government’s closing of the original website, according to a criminal complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The site was “designed to enable users anywhere in the world to buy and sell illegal drugs and other illegal goods and services anonymously and beyond the reach of law enforcement,” the complaint said. Those targeted in the sweep were part of a thriving yet secret global marketplace, which included web pages designed to mimic conventional online retail giants, even down to offering a system to review and rate the quality of service.
“The business model is to create web stores on these hidden services and then use the normal transport to deliver it,” Mr. Oerting said.
“If you need 10 grams of cocaine they will deliver it with a courier or a mailman. You can pay for it with Bitcoin, or a credit card,” Mr. Oerting added. “The problem is that in this system the criminals cheat on each other.”
The authorities did not release the names of those arrested while investigators probed information seized from the computers of the sellers to target the buyers of illegal goods. “In due time,” Mr. Oerting said, “a second wave of raids and arrests” could be expected.
In a related arrest in California this week, a criminal complaint described how an undercover Homeland Security agent “successfully infiltrated” the support staff for Silk Road 2.0 and “regularly interacted directly” with its operator, who used the pseudonym “Defcon.”
On Wednesday, the authorities arrested Blake Benthall, 26, in San Francisco and charged him with operating Silk Road 2.0, the online marketplace created to be a successor to the original Silk Road website, a black market for drug sales and other illegal activity that used Bitcoins.
Silk Road 2.0 was formed last November “to fill the void” left by the government’s closing of the original website, according to a criminal complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
In recent months, Silk Road 2.0 had about 150,000 monthly active users, and generated at least $8 million in monthly sales and at least $400,000 in monthly commissions, the authorities said.
Mr. Benthall appeared before a magistrate judge in San Francisco on Thursday and agreed to be transferred to Manhattan, said Daniel Blank, his federal public defender in San Francisco. Mr. Blank added that he expected Mr. Benthall would seek bail in New York. Mr. Benthall faces charges that include conspiracies of narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.
As recently as Oct. 29, the complaint said, Silk Road 2.0 was “dominated by offerings for illegal narcotics,” with more than 14,000 listings for “Drugs,” including 1,654 for “Psychedelics” and 1,921 for “Ecstasy.”
Recent listings, the complaint said, also included 100 grams of “Afghan Heroin Brown Power” for Bitcoins worth about $4,555, a fake Danish passport for Bitcoins worth about $2,414 and a fake New Jersey driver’s license for Bitcoins worth about $98.
According to Mr. Oerting, there was no limit to the products and services on the illegal sites, which apparently included offers of killers for hire.
“The scope is basically everything is for sale, everything that is stolen,” Mr. Oerting said. “You might even buy a stolen car. But in general they were selling anything you would want to send with a normal mailman, the fastest business mode,” he said.
Now the website and others seized in the global investigation open to a splash page with the words, “THIS HIDDEN SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED." Alongside it are the logos of various government agencies including the F.B.I. and Europol.