
AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down - pero
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/alphabay-largest-online-dark-market-shut-down
======
Miner49er
"'The so-called anonymity of the dark web is illusory,' said Acting
Administrator Chuck Rosenberg of the DEA."

I wonder if this is true, or simply hyperbole. I'm extremely curios on the
technical details of this bust.

Edit: It appears that some info can be found here
[https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-
release/file/982821/downlo...](https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-
release/file/982821/download). Look at the section "Alexandre Cazes:
Alphabay's Founder and Operator"

It looks like the founder was extremely careless. His personal hotmail email
was included in the header of the welcome email and password reset emails to
Alphabay users. He used the same username on Alphabay on at least one forum
before creating Alphabay. This username was tied with his personal email and
name.

~~~
djmobley
He seemed to be pretty careless about flaunting his wealth. These forum
postings are referenced in the forfeiture complaint (NSFW):

[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-56038.html)

Interestingly, the forum owner posted last week claiming he had suddenly
passed away:

[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-63799.html)

~~~
nihonde
That first link paints a very unflattering image of Mr. Caze, and in his own
words. I couldn't dream up a more perfect depiction of the despicable
personalities at the core of cryptocurrency counter-culture.

------
B1narySunset
This won't stop people who want drugs from buying them. What it'll do is
prevent some people from buying them from reputable sellers with positive
feedback. Now they might have to find some shady dealer who could be selling
them rat poison.

~~~
Romanulus
Why is 'selling poison instead of drugs' even a logical scare-tactic? Wouldn't
even the shadiest of dealers want to keep their customers/hosts/victims around
to, you know, keep bleeding money?

~~~
tetrep
And that's why nobody makes fakes or knock-offs, right? Because they'd lose
their customer base once their customers purchase the product and find out it
is not genuine.

They're are large profit margins to be made off of either cutting drugs (if
you're nice, with something inert, if you're not, just with something cheap)
or for things like LSD, selling research chemicals that are similar yet
different and massively cheaper to manufacture/buy than the real thing.

~~~
Romanulus
You failed to connect the logic... selling a 'fake' or knock-off brand !=
selling poison. I wasn't secretly weighting the pros and cons of buying the
no-name Tylenol last time I needed to cure a headache.

"Hmm, do I potentially poison myself for a savings of a couple of bucks? I
might die... but it _is_ three bucks..."

------
cody8295
Condolences to any users/vendors who lost coin because of the takedown.

Anybody have info on how the admin was found? Was the method of DDoSing Tor
nodes used to force traffic into honeypot'd Tor nodes?

~~~
eugeneionesco
Yeah man, those poor poor vendors who make money on addicted users...

~~~
alasdair_
The single most highly traded item in terms of volume on most of these markets
is pot, then non-addictive (but still potentially dangerous) drugs like MDMA.

The number of hardcore opioid addicts that have a laptop, internet connection,
knowledge of bitcoin, someone to convert cash into a bitcoin balance, a tor
installation, a good address to pick up from and a willingness to wait a week
to get their fix delivered is likely fairly small.

~~~
pentae
And those types of users are, from what i've witnessed typically still highly
functional members of society (lawyers, tech entrepreneurs, etc)

------
peterwwillis
They confiscated "millions of dollars" in cryptocurrencies. A similar darkweb
site that just got taken down had 2 million euros in cryptocurrency
confiscated.

The US federal (not state & local) government will spend over 27 Billion
dollars in 2018 on the war on drugs. This site was around 11,739 times smaller
than that annual budget. The global drug market was estimated at over 350
Billion in 2009, making the site approximately 152,173 times smaller than the
global market.

~~~
xj9
replace one cartel with another

------
rmwaite
Don't these people know that they will never kill this. Just like Napster's
death, and oink, and what, and so on. Every time they shut one of these down
the next one will be harder to shut down.

~~~
anoonmoose
I mean, you say that, but after having oink go down on me, and more recently
what, I've given up on pirating music, and I have to imagine others have done
the same. You might be right about the next one being harder to shut down,
maybe, but I would also expect the next one to be smaller because of the
changing climate.

Edit: I mean, yeah, $10/mo for unlimited streaming was a factor. There are
comparisons to the drug trade there, with regards to the number of legal
sources increasing over time. My point stands.

~~~
colecut
The ability to stream nearly any music you want for $10/month through multiple
services has probably done more for decreasing audio piracy than shutting down
torrent sites.

~~~
PixelB
This is exactly right, and the problem that our government just doesn't seem
to 'get'.

If you want to stop people from doing something, you can't just take away
their source, they will find another.. you have to give them a BETTER source.

With media, streaming services have done more to cut down in piracy than
anything else.. it's convenient, so people will do it. If you're only paying a
few dollars a month to save the frustration of finding movies/music, waiting
to download, vs just clicking and having it right there. This is why things
like Kodi were so popular, it's all about convenience.

Now drugs are not movies, but similar rules apply. Say one is addicted to
heroin, and suddenly their source is taken away.. do you think they will just
decide "Oh well, I am done with heroin now!", no, they will find another
source. If you want to REALLY make a difference, give them a better/safer
source, and help them. No one says "I want to be addicted to heroin", they
have issues that cause them to be dependent on the drug (often pain). We
DESPERATELY need to follow the lead of other countries and start providing
drug havens for addicts. So many people die in this country ever year of
opiate overdoses, with the solution right in front of our eyes (look at EU
countries with drug clinics), but we refuse to do anything about it because
our antiquated dinosaur politicians are afraid they will look like they
support drug use; how they appear to the 1% is more important to them than
saving tens of thousands of lives every year.

------
pero
Blockchain analysis investment perhaps delivering some ROI.

[http://www.sandia.gov/news/publications/labnews/articles/201...](http://www.sandia.gov/news/publications/labnews/articles/2016/19-08/bitcoin.html)

[https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xz35e/us-law-
enf...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xz35e/us-law-enforcement-
have-spent-hundreds-of-thousands-on-bitcoin-tracking-tools)

~~~
lawn
DN users should really start using Monero instead of Bitcoin.

~~~
alasdair_
11,993 Monero were part of the seized assets.

~~~
contingencies
= USD$480k according to
[https://coinmarketcap.com/](https://coinmarketcap.com/) ... and about 1/30th
of global Monero trading volume in the last 24 hours.

The source for assets seized is [https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-
release/file/982821/downlo...](https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-
release/file/982821/download) which also lists properties in various
countries, vehicles, bank accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, etc.

------
antihero
Anyone else thing it's dodgy as hell that he offed himself in custody? Surely
with all the assets he had, he'd have a pretty comfy lifestyle behind bars.

------
bdcravens
Certainly a definitive source coming from the DoJ, but they were shut down
several weeks ago, and the arrested founder apparently committed suicide 6
days ago.

~~~
Mizza
This announcement is timed in conjunction with the shutdown of "Hansa Market",
which has been operating as a honeypot. They shut down AlphaBay, then users
and vendors migrated to Hansa, which was already honeypotted, allowing police
to capture login credentials for migrating vendors.

~~~
tycho01
Take-away: if you're doing something illicit you'd better reconsider being
dumb about passwords. Or would just user names / IPs have done them in?

------
siliconc0w
You have to think eventually the criminals will evolve proper OPSEC - there is
simply too much money to be made. Also, you really should be living in a place
with no extradition - Thai police picking you up is a bad place to be. Vietnam
is close by and has no extradition - a much better choice for aspiring
criminals.

~~~
berberous
Or it will evolve to being run by Russian mobsters or North Korea--folks that
are much harder to stop than random 25-year old geeks from America and Canada.

~~~
fweespeech
Yeah, there might already be one or two of those in existence already. :\

At the end of the day, the "outlaw" nation states are the ones that are going
to be operating these things and then use the money to fund their black
budgets.

It doesn't matter if they can be identified as long as they can change the
bitcoin to cash in an allied country.

------
karzeem
Any more info out there on the technical details of the bust?

~~~
dylz
[https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-
release/file/982821/downlo...](https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-
release/file/982821/download)

It is so sad.

Literally had a paypal with the same hotmail address he sent welcome emails
with? WTF?

~~~
hackerboos
AB didn't send emails. At least not in the last 12 months.

~~~
xeroxmalf
It happened / was fixed 3 years ago.

------
agumonkey
Don't laugh, but what and how much is sold on darknet(s) ? weed ? cocaine ?
weapons ? people ?

~~~
PixelB
Mostly MDMA, LSD. To a lesser extent weed (harder to transport), coke, heroin,
etc.

They do have actual bad things on these sites as well, such as the
aforementioned weapons and people, but this is the subsection that we actually
SHOULD be going after.

As far as how much; not much. As one other user had posted, one of these
illicit markets represents approximately 1/150,000th of the world market. It
is a non-issue that the government spends a lot of money on for the purpose of
visibility and increased funding (Look at us! We busted the bad guys! We're
doing good! Give us more money!).

------
eof
::phew:: world is a safer place now

/s

~~~
PixelB
Yes no longer will we have to fear the hordes of hippies high on goopballs
eating our babies and raping our pets!

------
s73ver
Or, you know, just don't do illicit things.

~~~
xj9
sure, but what is actually wrong with drug use? _moral outrage?_ _the sign of
a decaying society?_ _untold secondary consequences?_

the problem is, people use drugs a lot. the war on drugs hasn't changed that
in the least. we may have social issues, but as a "relatively upstanding and
taxpaying citizen" who also happens to enjoy certain drugs on occasion, i ask.
how exactly is my drug use impairing my ability to function in society? i get
up and write software all day, why do you care if i get high when i get home?

~~~
s73ver
"sure, but what is actually wrong with drug use?"

I don't care; that's not what's being debated here. The fact of the matter is,
it's illegal, and anyone who sets up a drug marketplace today knows that. They
set it up with full knowledge that they are breaking the law. If they wish to
campaign to have drug laws reworked, I'm all for that and wish them the best
of luck. But they're not doing that; they're setting up a marketplace with the
intentions of making lots of money. They're not fighting for freedom or
anything like that; they're just trying to make a quick buck.

And please don't respond with any kind of false equivalence bs. Getting high
is not any kind of civil rights struggle. It's nice, but that's it. It is
absolutely nothing like civil rights struggles of the past, and comparing it
to such events is an extreme disrespect to those struggles and those who went
through them.

~~~
papaf
_Getting high is not any kind of civil rights struggle. It 's nice, but that's
it._

I think this is a logical and well reasoned attitude if you are living in an
ivory tower and have never been close to an addict. People mostly become
addicts in response to something bad happening in their lives.

Punishing fellow human beings for an addiction is wrong. Addicts need
treatment and support not punishment.

This may not be a civil rights issue, more common sense and basic decency.

~~~
nnfy
>People mostly become addicts in response to something bad happening in their
lives

This is absolutely untrue. It would seem that you are living in an ivory tower
of your own. I won't recount anecdote, but take a look at this source[1].

1\. [http://theinfluence.org/do-we-overstate-the-role-trauma-
play...](http://theinfluence.org/do-we-overstate-the-role-trauma-plays-in-
addiction/)

