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Dark Web Marketplace AlphaBay Shuts For Good After Police Raids (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the rip dept.

Dark web marketplace AlphaBay's closure last week followed an international law enforcement operation and multiple raids, it has emerged. It has also been reported that a key suspect who was arrested in the raids has died in custody. From a report: The world's biggest online drug bazaar dropped offline on 5 July, sparking fears that its administrators had disappeared taking a swag bag of digital currency with them, pulling an "exit scam" like other dark web marketplace kingpins before them. The Wall Street Journal reports that a Canadian suspected of running AlphaBay was arrested in Thailand on 5 July following an international police operation involving authorities in the US and Canada as well as Thailand. Alexandre Cazes, the 26-year-old who had been accused of being the site's admin, was found dead in a Thai jail cell on Wednesday, the WSJ adds. The Bangkok Post reported that Cazes had been resident in Thailand for about eight years and had a Thai wife. Thai authorities said they'd seized four Lamborghini cars and three upmarket residences with a combined value of $11.7m (400 million Thai Baht). US authorities had apparently been seeking to extradite Cazes at the time of his death.

13 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Rule 1. Don't attract attention. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thai authorities said they'd seized four Lamborghini cars and three upmarket residences with a combined value of $11.7m (400 million Thai Baht). US authorities had apparently been seeking to extradite Cazes at the time of his death.

    This guy could have lead a very comfortable life bouncing around the globe traveling, occasionally logging in to make sure things were running smoothly and shifting money out.

    1. Re:Rule 1. Don't attract attention. by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Did his house in Thailand say "AlphaBay Founder". They found HIM then they figured out where to get him. No one issued a warrant for "the person or persons living at IP XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX". So if they know who to arrest, it's not hard to put the flag to stop him at the border of any cooperating country.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:Rule 1. Don't attract attention. by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed. It is a criminal "best practice" to stay under the radar. As is usual in these cases, he will be replaced by more careful operators within no time. Meanwhile, the utterly senseless "War on Drugs" (really a war on self-determination and what you can do for fun waged by authoritarian scum) will continue without any positive effects, but doing massive damage.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:Rule 1. Don't attract attention. by rahvin112 · · Score: 2

      The money was likely how they found him. Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are completely traceable if it is a real bank account or are converted a real money. They only remain anonymous while they are never used. The minute you do anything with them you tie them to your real life and with block chain public it becomes trivial for law enforcement to follow the block chain transaction to your real bank account and arrest you. A canadian living in Thailand with millions in money was likely creating so many transactions that it was trivial for them to trace him, the hard part was the international police effort but they likely had him for months while it was arranged.

      Silk Road would have never been caught if it hadn't been for his early advertising that tied it to his real name because he'd never converted to cash any of the collected bitcoins he received which never gave them the financial transaction to tie to him.

    4. Re:Rule 1. Don't attract attention. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      will continue without any positive effects, but doing massive damage.

      Cui bono?

      It's positive for policemen and those who sell their toys.
      It's positive for prison owners and unions.
      It's positive for the "justice" system.
      It's positive for the people who sell "interdiction" equipment.
      It's positive for politicians who need an internal enemy.
      It's positive for black ops budgets.
      It's positive for big pharma.
      It's positive for organized crime.

      It's only doing massive damage to The People. And that's who it's a War on.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  2. I am aghast! by Baron_Yam · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where will I spend my Bitcoin now?

    1. Re:I am aghast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just hang on to it and watch the value plummet.

    2. Re:I am aghast! by gweihir · · Score: 2

      As long as there is a reasonable product and buyers, there will be a market. The problem here is authoritarians that are unable to respect the life-choices of others. And it is them that are responsible for all drug-related crime.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:I am aghast! by gweihir · · Score: 2

      You are apparently too dumb to understand the difference between a crime with a victim and one without one. And you are also apparently too dumb to see what causes the majority of problems that drug users have.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  3. "Found dead" by WolfgangVL · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nice.

    I suppose when they seize everything, you can no longer grease the hand that feeds you.
    OR
    Maybe he was a loudmouth asshole in a place where loudmouth assholes are often "found dead"?

    Ether way, I imagine Tai prison is a special kind of hell.

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    You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
    1. Re:"Found dead" by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

      Well he probably had the local law enforcement paid off and figured he was safe. Once it got international law attention the locals aren't going to want to be implicated...

  4. Re:Suspicious to say the least by Dunbal · · Score: 2

    Or someone took the $5 wrench technique seriously when obtaining his passwords and hit him once too many times.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  5. Re: i bought all my phenatyl from narcoking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People only get hurt because these drugs are illegal in the first place. Other than second-hand smoke, there is relatively no harm to anyone else in using the drugs other than to the user. If a free country, you are supposed to be free unless someone else gets harmed by what you are doing.

    Please don't respond to this by saying drugs create crime. Anything if value creates crime, like iPhones. There would be less crime if there weren't $750 phones sitting in everyone's pocket.

    I'm not a drug user, and I'm not anti-law enforcement. But how many lives have been ruined by the war on drugs because saidnlife wanted to try something different or new, and we threw them in jail for it? If someone wants to harm themselves for a feeling (I'm look at you, smokers), then by all means, go ahead.

    Imagine how rich drug kingpins and rackets are, and how much tax money we lose out on, and how much value gets exported when we import illegal drugs because there are no local suppliers? Every aspect of these drug laws sucks.