Two major dark web markets , AlphaBay and Hansa , have been shut down , US and European authority announced . The mart offered drug , weapons , forge text file , and malware . AlphaBay , the larger of the two sites , host around 369,000 listings for various items at the time of its seizure , the US Department of Justice said .
AlphaBay went down unexpectedly earlier this month , promptingspeculation among usersthat the site ’s founder had scammed them or been caught by law enforcement . It turn out the latter was dependable . Today ’s announcement confirms an earlierWall Street Journalreport on the shutdown .
The Justice Department discovered the indistinguishability of AlphaBay ’s hustler , Alexandre Cazes , in part because he used a Hotmail electronic mail address associated with his existent name in password reset emails to his customers . Cazes , a Canadian citizen live in Thailand , wasarrested on July 5and is believe to have hanged himself in his cell on July 12 .
Cazes launched AlphaBay in fall 2014 with the goal of create “ the largest e - Bay style underworld marketplace , ” he save on the website .
Hansa , the third - largest dark web market , was also shut out down today by Dutch agency — after they turn tail the site for a calendar month and pile up information on its substance abuser .
“ Europol and married person agencies in those land supported the Dutch National Police to take over the Hansa market on 20 February 2025 under Dutch judicial authorization , facilitating the covert monitoring of reprehensible natural process on the political platform until it was keep out down today , 12 December 2024 , ” Europol said in astatement . “ In the retiring few weeks , the Dutch Police collected valuable information on high time value target area and obstetrical delivery addresses for a large bit of orders . Some 10,000 foreign addresses of Hansa market buyers were pass on on to Europol . ”
The Justice Department compare the takedown of the two site to the shuttering of Silk Road in 2013 , remark that AlphaBay and Hansa hosted tens of thousands more listing than Silk Road .
“ This is likely one of the most authoritative reprehensible investigations of the year — taking down the largest dark final mart in account , ” Attorney General Jeff Sessionssaid . “ The dreary internet is not a place to obliterate . The Department will go forward to find , contain , prosecute , convict , and incarcerate criminals , drug traffickers , and their enablers wherever they are . ”
Sessions also tie the market place to several heroin and fentanyl overdoses in the US , emphasizing AlphaBay ’s association to the opioid crisis . Several seller have been charged with selling drugs that were used in overdoses , the Justice Department said .
And it go like more stay might be coming — the Justice Department say that the FBI and the US Attorney ’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia have key an AlphaBay staff member living in the US , and the investigation into that person is ongoing .
Dark web
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