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‘Dark’ Network of Illegal Websites Targeted by U.S. and European Police International Raids Target Sites Selling Contraband on the ‘Dark Web’
(about 7 hours later)
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. In the digital marketplace, they operated as a secret underground with names like Blue Sky and Silk Road 2.0 where anonymous buyers could purchase drugs, stolen credit cards and weapons, or even hire a hit man.
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. These websites, known as the “dark web,” cannot be found by Google or even by typing in a web address. The sites typically operated on the Tor network, which is designed to conceal the I.P. addresses of the computers being used.
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. It was that thriving online black market that American and international authorities announced on Friday had been the target of a series of raids and arrests in 16 countries, which included the seizure of dozens of websites that matched anonymous sellers and buyers for illicit goods and services.
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 investigation, nicknamed Operation Onymous, was aimed chiefly at sellers, and deactivated upward of 50 such websites, including Silk Road 2.0 and Blue Sky, as well as Mr. Quid’s Forum and Cannabis Road Markets, according to Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency.
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. Across Europe and the United States, at least 17 sellers were arrested, 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. The investigation had been underway for months as the illegal online market “mushroomed,” Mr. Oerting said.
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 international effort was “the largest law enforcement action to date against criminal websites operating on the Tor network,” said Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office announced the operation on Friday. “As illegal activity online becomes more prevalent,” he added, “criminals can no longer expect that they can hide in the shadows of the ‘dark web.’ ”
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. On Thursday, Mr. Bharara’s office announced charges against a California man, Blake Benthall, 26, who was arrested the previous day in San Francisco and charged with narcotics trafficking, money laundering and hacking conspiracies in connection with his operation of Silk Road 2.0. That site, the authorities said, was the successor to the original Silk Road website and identical in operation.
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. As recently as Oct. 29, Silk Road 2.0 was “dominated by offerings for illegal narcotics,” with 14,024 listings for “Drugs,” including 1,654 for “Psychedelics” and 1,921 for “Ecstasy,” according to a federal complaint. The website recently had about 150,000 monthly active users, generating at least $8 million in monthly sales and $400,000 in monthly commissions, the authorities 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 operation was led by American law enforcement agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations — and coordinated by Europol in the various European countries. The raids started on Wednesday, with Mr. Benthall’s arrest, and continued through Friday in a broad sweep.
Raids took place across Europe, including France, Germany, Spain, Britain and Ireland. Mr. Bharara’s office cited the cooperation of those countries, as well as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.
Mr. Oerting declined to say how the authorities had cracked the dark websites despite the sites’ use of anonymous software. But the investigation appears to have been full of intrigue.
An undercover Homeland Security agent “successfully infiltrated the support staff involved in running” Silk Road 2.0, was provided access to its private areas and “regularly interacted directly” with Mr. Benthall, who used the screen name Defcon, according to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan.
The agent even became a paid staff member of Silk Road 2.0, and since January received regular payments in Bitcoins totaling about $32,000, according to the complaint.
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 criminal activities but by whistle-blowers and activists seeking to avoid detection.
Users of Tor, an acronym for the onion router for its layers of encryption, need special software.
Mr. Bharara’s office said Friday that the broad operation against the “dark market” sites involved the seizure of more than 400 Tor web addresses and the servers hosting them. The targeted websites included some 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.“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.” Among the sites seized was one called “Executive Outcomes,” which specialized in the trafficking of firearms, including assault rifles, automatic weapons and sound suppressors, Mr. Bharara’s office said.
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. The office said that the site offered “secure drop ship locations” globally to ensure anonymity during the shipping process. Another website, “Fake Real Plastic,” offered counterfeit credit cards for sale, “printed to look just like real Visa and MasterCards,” according to Mr. Bharara’s office. The site guaranteed that its cards would have at least $2,500 left on the credit card limit and could be produced with “any name you want on the card,” the government said.
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.” Other sites had offered to sell counterfeit euros and dollars in exchange for Bitcoins, prosecutors said.
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.“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.