Last week in front of the world media, Jeff Sessions, the United States Attorney General announced they had undergone an international effort to take down specific dark markets and would continue in the future to crack down on them. The biggest one in question was Alphabay, which had gone offline a few days prior and ultimately had been compromised. A Canadian citizen was arrested in Thailand with the connection to the sting and ultimately committed suicide, albeit under suspicious circumstances, to avoid trial.
It is unknown currently how high of a role they played in the administration of the website, but they were obviously very wealthy, sporting a luxury mansion and multiple exotic cars. Whether or not the government is currently pursuing other individuals in the sting operation is unknown, but will most likely come to light in the future. The reason the person’s identity was ultimately compromised was because of some sort of old authentication process that had his real email in the header, leading police to target the person.
The raid is no surprise, however the level of ferocity in the crackdown is probably at levels we haven’t seen since the original silk road was shut down. News is still developing , but it seems that more than just a few markets might have been compromised. Alphabay going down sent many people to other sites to fulfill their purchases, noticeably Hansa market and Dream market, both which now are under suspicion. Hansa market at this time is known to be compromised, but the Dream market is unknown as of now. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next few days we see anther major announcement.
It seems this time the strategy was to shut down and compromise multiple markets at once, not only to catch the large vendors from the main website, but also the vendors that flow outwards to these new services. It seems like many shill accounts on reddit were pushing Hansa market and many people suspect these accounts were government funded in order to catch the fallout. Dark market strategies are becoming more and more advanced as the Trump administration has vowed to put an end to dark web drug market places.
The beauty of the attack on the Alphabay and Hansa markets is now users of the darkweb are afraid that the other sites they are using might be compromised as well and might avoid making orders until things bow over. I don’t think the government can sustain the attacks for a long period of time and there are still many smaller drug marketplaces that will cater to those who seek drugs, but people are operating at a higher risk level now than before. I personally believe in the medusa effect when it comes to multiple heads growing back and more markets sprouting up after one large one is shut down, mostly because I don’t think there is a lack of people who are willing to take the ultimate risk for wealth. I don’t think this is anywhere near the last we will see of the darknet market crack downs and perhaps if you are a casual user, you should cease your orders for a little while.
