An international investigation identified an Irish suspect as being behind an online distribution network which had customer addresses across the world. It has been hailed as an aid to democracy by enabling reform movements in oppressive regimes to safely share ideas but it is also used by criminals trading drugs, guns and child pornography. The darknet is a hidden layer of the internet that admits select users to heavily encrypted networks designed to assure anonymity and cover digital tracks. “We are particularly glad that we have been able to contribute to the worldwide effort at giving a signal to those who thought they had a mechanism of selling drugs whereby it couldn’t be infiltrated by law enforcement. Crucially, gardaí were also able to seize and preserve computers expected to yield invaluable information about the nature and scope of the trafficking operation, its operators and client list.
Bohemia, along with sister site Cannabia – unsurprisingly dedicated to marijuana products – by 2023 had become among the longest-operating darknet markets and attracted an influx of new users, Searchlight Cyber wrote in December. Ecstasy tablets, LSD and other controlled drugs to value €180,000 have been seized by gardaí in a raid on ‘Darknet’ drug distribution centre in Dublin. Gardai said a critical part of the operation was the preservation of data on encrypted computers which related to the worldwide distribution of controlled drugs from this premises in Dublin 8. A global investigation into the sale and supply of drugs on an encrypted layer of the internet known as the Darknet identified an Irish vendor in recent weeks. "A critical part of this operation was preservation of data on encrypted computers which related to the worldwide distribution of controlled drugs from this premises in Dublin," said a Garda spokesman.
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Finnish and Polish police in 2019 jointly shut down a predecessor marketplace called Sipulimarket. "Yesterday’s operation demonstrates my strong commitment to targeting those who cause fear and harm in our communities through their drug dealing activities.” An international day of action to disrupt global activity on the Darknet and remove certain websites and forums is to conclude within the next 24 hours under the FBI/Europol operation codenamed "Onymous". A follow-up search in Harolds Cross, Dublin 6 resulted in further small seizure of controlled drugs and documentation in relation to offshore bank accounts in Switzerland, Belize, Poland and a number of other countries.
It's been more than a decade since Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht initiated an era of online criminal bazaars that use the anonymity-bestowing properties of the Tor network. Dutch police said around 67,000 criminal transactions took place each month on Bohemia/Cannabia, with turnover peaking in September 2023 at 12 million euros. Launched in 2021, the sites specialized in drugs but also served as intermediaries for counterfeit IDs and currency, as well as malware. Irish police arrested this past summer a Dublin exurbs resident who Dutch police say also ran the now-shuttered site.
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Some fake sellers take your crypto and never ship what you ordered, or phishing sites that look like real marketplaces but steal your login info. It’s been a constant back-and-forth between cybercriminals and law enforcement, with each new site trying to be smarter and more secure than the last. Some were taken down by law enforcement, others just vanished overnight with users’ money.
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Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you. Two men, both aged in their 20s, were arrested at the scene and are currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996 at Garda stations in the DMR North. 46 packages of vacuum-sealed cannabis herb, with an estimated street value of €460,000 was discovered and seized by Gardaí. Gardaí attached to the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT) seized cannabis worth approximately €460,000 following the search of a residential property in Swords in north Dublin on Wednesday evening. The financial investigation in relation to this investigation is continuing with new information still coming to light at this time. Those visiting the site were greeted with a notice posted by the agencies explaining the site had been disabled and warning others involved in the darknet they would eventually be caught.
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An additional 30 kilograms of suspected counterfeit Adderall pills were seized on May 2, 2024, in New York. Additionally, two vehicles and several pieces of property were seized during the search warrants. Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, “The five victims of defendants’ crimes ranged in age from 19 to 51. Both defendants further admitted to distributing fentanyl-laced pills to two additional victims, both of whom suffered fatal drug overdoses shortly after they received the pills from Ta and Srinivasan. For example, in November 2023, while operating in an undercover capacity on Incognito Market, a law enforcement agent purchased and received several tablets purported to be oxycodone.
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Authorities seized assets valued at 7.8 million euros, including cryptocurrency and luxury goods, and deployed around 300 officers across multiple countries during the operation. Archetyp Market facilitated a reported minimum of 250 million euros (about $290 million) in drug transactions over five years, with over 600,000 users, 3,200 vendors, and 17,000 listings. Archetyp Market was one of the few marketplaces allowing the sale of highly potent synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, contributing to broader health threats and overdose risks in Europe and beyond. HugBunter, the anonymous user who founded the forum in 2018, asked “market admins, vendors, and other service operators” to provide “proof-of-life” by signing posts with what’s known as a PGP encrypted signature, a form of cryptographic proof.
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Tor is the most popular instance of a darknet, and it is often mistakenly thought to be the only online tool that facilitates access to darknets. Anonymous communication between whistle-blowers, activists, journalists and news organisations is also facilitated by darknets through use of applications such as SecureDrop. Speaking at the conference in the Convention Centre in Dublin, Catherine Pierse, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), said the criminal justice system was facing a serious backlog of cases. In one case in recent years Cab seized bitcoin from someone convicted of online fraud, which was worth more than €5 million by the time the bureau sold it, with the proceeds going to victims of the fraud overseas, he said.
They said that an Irish vendor had been identified in recent weeks and the investigation had found where it was believed the distribution operation was based. Despite small numbers using the web to buy MDMA, it is the most common drug sold online. Men are the main users of the drug and are three times more likely to report using it than women across the continent. However, use of the drug declined during the Covid-19 pandemic when nightlife shut down and had a “significant impact” on the market. While MDMA declined from peak levels in the early to mid-2000s, data shows it is on the rise again suggesting it is no longer a niche party drug. A European Union Drugs Agency study has uncovered that 6 percent or more of people aged 15 to 34 have consumed MDMA in the last year, making the country the biggest users of the drug in the EU alongside the Netherlands.
The Abacus Market links to the new dark web marketplace sections and took over much of the vacuum left by the AlphaBay takedown. One of the most common is the exit scam, where a marketplace suddenly disappears and takes everyone’s money with it. Law enforcement agencies do monitor these spaces, and just because it’s anonymous doesn’t mean you’re invisible. Just visiting the dark web, or using a tool like Tor, isn’t illegal in most countries. Others are looking for stolen data, hacking services, or even banned books and political content.
The Irishman co-ordinating the global police action against criminals using the internet to sell drugs and guns says the operation resulted in an unprecedented breakthrough in their war on the multi-million euro trade. "Some people you’re not going to deter from going to these markets. But there are a large number of people who would never considering buying drugs on a street corner or from a shady dealer but who will use the perceived anonymity of the internet to do this," Europol's Steven Wilson says. It arrested 61 people, and seized more than 650 pounds of illegal drugs, 51 firearms, and nearly $10 million in cash, gold, and cryptocurrency. Europol also said the market allowed the sale of fentanyl and “other highly potent synthetic opioids.”Authorities seized the site’s online infrastructure, which was hosted in the Netherlands, and arrested its 30-year-old German administrator in Barcelona, Spain.
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Two men in their 30s were arrested at the scene. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the "Do Not Sell or Share my Data" button at the bottom of the webpage. For all the latest news from Dublin and surrounding areas visit our homepage. The 49-year-old man and 32-year-old woman have since been released from custody pending the submission of a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Additionally, a woman, 32, was also arrested on suspicion of alleged offences contrary to the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 and detained.
- Crucially, gardaí were also able to seize and preserve computers expected to yield invaluable information about the nature and scope of the trafficking operation, its operators and client list.
- Since its launch in May 2020, Archetyp grew into a sprawling platform facilitating massive illegal drug sales across multiple countries.
- The investigators identified the suspects (many behind thousands of sales on illicit online marketplaces) using intelligence collected following takedowns of multiple dark web markets, including Nemesis, Bohemia, Tor2Door, and Kingdom Market.
- She has recently conducted commissioned research for the NSW Coroner's Office, the WA Mental Health Commission and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
- Following surveillance, officers from the National Drug Unit, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and the Computer Crime Investigation Unit (CCIU) yesterday raided a premises in Dublin 8 and arrested two suspects.
The diversity of drugs offered on Archetyp—ranging from recreational substances like cannabis and MDMA to lethal synthetic opioids—illustrates the broad spectrum of public health risks fueled by darknet markets. The majority of users buy the drug from trusted sources such as suppliers, friends, and street dealers with a small cohort accessing the €594 million market online via the darknet and social media. Today's drugs marketplace administrators are cautious about their online traces. The raid came about as a result of an international drug trafficking investigation into the sale and supply of controlled drugs on an encrypted layer of the internet known as "the Darknet". The secretive darknet website, accessed by the Tor anonymity network which conceals users’ identities and locations around the world, was infiltrated by an undercover US Homeland Security investigator before it went online last year. The arrests of two men on suspicion of selling drugs from Dublin via the secretive part of the internet known as the darknet was part of a major day of action in which some of the biggest secret drug trading sites in the word were taken down, it has emerged.
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THE SUPPLY CHAINAccording to the United Nations, 250 million people use illicit psychoactive drugs. The darknet, and in particular, its drug infrastructure, doesn’t sell itself very well. In total, law enforcement officers seized 47 smartphones, 45 computers, narcotics, and assets worth €7.8 million from all suspects during Operation Deep Sentinel. Over its five years of activity, the marketplace amassed over 612,000 users with a total transaction volume of over €250 million (approximately $289 million) in Monero cryptocurrency transactions.
"My guess would be the lower-tier markets just grow in prominence again," he says. The latter's takedown began, the head of the Dutch federal police's darknet-focused team Nan van de Coevering tells WIRED, through a tip that led them to part of Wall Street Market's infrastructure hosted in the Netherlands. In a well-coordinated, two-pronged attack, the FBI took down Alphabay in July of that year while Dutch police hijacked the second-largest dark-web market, Hansa.
Be the first to know the latest news and updates “It will be an education to those who think they can not be traced and, as we progress through the investigation, those people will have to be interviewed. Both men were arrested at a rented business unit on South Circular Road. In the modern era, business is done, like everything else, on the internet,” he said. Drug deals worth millions of euro are believed to have been disrupted by the Irish arm of the worldwide investigation coordinated by Europol and the FBI.
