Pierluigi Paganini
October 14, 2024
The Dutch police have announced the success of a new joint law enforcement operation that led to the shutdown of the dual dark web marketplace Bohemia/Cannabia. These are two of the largest and longest-running dark web platforms for the trade of illegal goods, drugs, and cybercrime services.
Law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, United States, and Ireland participated in the operation that began towards the end of 2022.
“The Dutch police have conducted a cybercrime investigation into the large dual dark web market ‘Bohemia/Cannabia’. This was a dark web market where illegal goods, such as drugs, and DDoS attacks were offered. It is the largest and longest running international dark web market of all time worldwide.” reads the announcement published by Polite.
The Bohemia marketplace ceased operations in late 2023 due to service disruptions, while its members suspected an exit scams of a rogue developer. At the time of its shut down, Bohemia hosted 82,000 daily ads and handled around 67,000 transactions monthly, with a turnover of €12 million in September 2023 alone.
Some sellers on Bohemia advertised they were shipping the products from the Netherlands. The initial police investigation revealed 14,000 transactions from the Netherlands took place with a value of at least 1.7 million euros.
Police expect this figure to rise and have already arrested several Dutch dealers in June. More arrests are anticipated.
On November 20, a verified Bohemia administrator provided on the dark web forum Dread information about the disruptions affecting the marketplace.
“The statement claims that in a “shameful and disgruntled set of events” a lead developer went “rogue”, withdrawing small amounts of Bitcoin (BTC) over a period of just over a month. The developer in question was “terminated” but the theft did require “an injection of funds into the site to help mitigate the losses”.” reads the post published on the website Search Light Cyber. “The administrators claim that this incident, combined with the recent price increase of Bitcoin, led to an “extremely difficult” situation that made it more difficult to process withdrawals.”
The Politie identified several marketplace administrators and arrested two suspects, one in the Netherlands and the other in Ireland. The authorities also seized two vehicles and €8 million worth of cryptocurrency.
“Administrators, sellers and buyers of and on illegal marketplaces often believe themselves to be elusive to the police and the judiciary.” wrote Stan Duijf, Head of Operations Unit National Investigation and Interventions. “By conducting criminal investigations and prosecuting these criminals, it becomes clear that the dark web is not at all as anonymous as users may think. Due to international cooperation, the credibility and reliability of these markets have once again been severely damaged.”
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