CRIME/FBI: “Two of the world’s largest online marketplaces for criminal goods have been shut down, law enforcement authorities said Thursday [7-20-17], in a global operation that also resulted in the arrest of their owners and the freezing of millions of dollars in alleged criminal proceeds.
AlphaBay, which sold heroin, fentanyl, firearms, and other illicit goods and allegedly serviced some 200,000 users and 40,000 vendors, was shut down earlier this month and its infrastructure seized, the Justice Department said. Attorney General Jeff Sessions described it as ‘one of the most important criminal investigations of the year’ and one that would serve as a blow to drug traffickers and other criminals.
The website’s alleged owner, Canadian-born Alexandre Cazes, was indicted in California in June and arrested in Thailand, authorities said. He was found dead in his cell on July 12. Authorities in Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, the U.K. and France, and the European law enforcement agency Europol all participated in the investigation.
In addition to operating an anonymous ‘Dark Web’ site, Mr. Cazes used digital currency and a dizzying web of international bank accounts in an effort to conceal his identity, federal prosecutors said.”
-Aruna Viswanatha and Robert McMillan, “Global Crackdown Shuts Two of the Dark Web’s Biggest Sites for Drugs and Guns,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 20, 2017 01:09pm