Drive home safe everybody.
http://www.thelocal.ch/20150208/hsbc-swiss-bank-helped-terrorists-and-criminals
Topic: Dark Net Weapons Bust Leads To 17 Arrests and a $80,000 Bitcoin Seizure (Read 2375 times)
May 19, 2015, 10:52:24 PM
May 19, 2015, 10:42:50 PM
$2,500 for a Walther PPK/S .380 calibre pistol and a silencer! The guy didn't know how to shop, you can get a decent gun for way less.
The sale was made in Australia which virtually has a complete gun ban. It takes 6 months of a sport shooting club membership to be eligible to purchase a handgun that will be strictly used for sport shooting.
When I was in school, I met an Australian student at a US gun range who told me that he unintentionally smuggled about 20 rounds of loose .22 LR ammunition in his carry on bag on one of his trips back to Australia. Somehow it wasn't detected by Airport security. His carry on backpack was also his gun range bag, and this was a long time ago before 9/11 so I believed him then.
Anyway he claims to have sold the 20 rounds of .22 LR (with a cost of 40 cents based on Walmart prices back then) for 200 AUD in Australia to some shady character.
Is .22 rimfire really Unobtaniuim in Australia?
It's not just .22 - it's everything. I've visited friends in Queensland several times in the last few years and yeah it ain't easy to own guns or buy ammo there. They have some pretty fucked up laws about gun ownership where you have to prove a genuine need and a genuine reason to own a gun. You don't just walk into your local Walmart and buy a few boxes of ammo either. They came to visit us in the U.S. one summer and we took them shooting. They were amazed at how many guns we are allowed to own and how much .223 remington we were able to shoot through in one weekend. I remember Curt saying we could take over the entire country of Australia with just the two ammo cans we brought camping with us. lol
Australia is very unique in that it is physically isolated from the rest of the world, making it difficult to smuggle anything into the country. In the US for example you could either cross the boarder via Mexico or make the short boat trip into the US from it's southern water boarder if you were to smuggle something into the US. With Australia on the other hand you will generally need to have the contraband transported on a major transportation carrier (and be subject to potential searches) which is going to be more difficult and more expensive.
AUS is also unique in that they are a very peaceful country. If that has anything to do with their strict gun laws is up for debate
May 19, 2015, 01:50:58 PM
I really laugh when people say " bitcoin is not worth anything, it is only a joke" .
But why it is used for these illegal and expensive things
, really insane... and those people should "be silent" because they do not know what they are saying.
But why it is used for these illegal and expensive things
, really insane... and those people should "be silent" because they do not know what they are saying. May 18, 2015, 09:30:07 PM
A recent series of busts has shaken the world of dark net weapons commerce. A six-month joint investigation between law enforcement in Australia and the United States, which involved law enforcement going undercover as weapons dealers, has resulted in 17 arrests internationally.
In September 2014, the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified a 33-year-old US-based dark net seller of weapons to a “worldwide client base,” according to a press release from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
....
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dark-net-weapons-bust-leads-17-arrests-80000-bitcoin-seizure/
These things will not help bitcoin to go mainstream, I also know you can (maybe) do these things also with all the FIAT currencies... but people like to use bitcoin....
In September 2014, the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified a 33-year-old US-based dark net seller of weapons to a “worldwide client base,” according to a press release from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
....
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dark-net-weapons-bust-leads-17-arrests-80000-bitcoin-seizure/
These things will not help bitcoin to go mainstream, I also know you can (maybe) do these things also with all the FIAT currencies... but people like to use bitcoin....
Fiat is not as digitally assessable as bitcoin and lots of these deals happen digitally so they have to use bitcoin.
No wonder people try to launder their money through cryptocurrencies.
These kind of acts doesn't strengthen the bitcoin community but become a threat as to whether bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies would be allowed to survive...
May 18, 2015, 07:03:43 PM
A recent series of busts has shaken the world of dark net weapons commerce. A six-month joint investigation between law enforcement in Australia and the United States, which involved law enforcement going undercover as weapons dealers, has resulted in 17 arrests internationally.
In September 2014, the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified a 33-year-old US-based dark net seller of weapons to a “worldwide client base,” according to a press release from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
....
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dark-net-weapons-bust-leads-17-arrests-80000-bitcoin-seizure/
These things will not help bitcoin to go mainstream, I also know you can (maybe) do these things also with all the FIAT currencies... but people like to use bitcoin....
In September 2014, the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified a 33-year-old US-based dark net seller of weapons to a “worldwide client base,” according to a press release from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
....
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dark-net-weapons-bust-leads-17-arrests-80000-bitcoin-seizure/
These things will not help bitcoin to go mainstream, I also know you can (maybe) do these things also with all the FIAT currencies... but people like to use bitcoin....
Fiat is not as digitally assessable as bitcoin and lots of these deals happen digitally so they have to use bitcoin.
May 18, 2015, 04:53:33 PM
Nope, qualified immunity (effectively indistinguishable from "absolute power" which corrupts absolutely) influences them to harm others. Crooks, on the other hand, feel invincible when the government disarms all their mentally-sound, sober, law-abiding victims for them.
May 18, 2015, 04:49:11 PM
Some police officers are a perfect example that guns can influence oneself to harm others, so imagine what a crook would do(Don't even need to imagine, just read the news). It makes you feel "invincible" and above the average pop.
May 18, 2015, 04:34:50 PM
Alcohol can influence oneself to harm others.
Guns cannot.
Guns cannot.
May 18, 2015, 04:32:17 PM
Prohibition leads to black market and the growth of criminal gangs. If the Australian idiots think that they have dismantled the entire weapons black market by arresting a few small-timers, then they are wrong. The big players will never get caught. In this particular case, the vendor was caught just because of his US connections.
Precisely this reminds me of the past prohibition of alcohol in usa, and we know what happened there. Though I also suppose guns and alcohol are two very different things(Alcohol is restricted to the person, guns are not i.e guns can cause harm to others, while alcohol usually just causes harm to oneself)
May 18, 2015, 11:30:01 AM
IMO this kind of publicity does more harm than anything else. people who hear about bitcoin for the first time this way or maybe someone who have heard of bitcoin but doesn't really know what it is, is going to know bitcoin as a means for illegal activities.
May 18, 2015, 10:00:57 AM
It's very rare that I hear of gun crime being a major problem there.
That is just because, as of now a vast majority of the Australians originate from nations with very low crime rate (such as the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Ireland, Greece.etc). Just wait until the third world population climbs to over 10% (quite possible, as Australia receives tens of thousands of "refugees" every year from countries such as Somalia and Afghanistan).
May 18, 2015, 09:40:35 AM
Prohibition leads to black market and the growth of criminal gangs. If the Australian idiots think that they have dismantled the entire weapons black market by arresting a few small-timers, then they are wrong. The big players will never get caught. In this particular case, the vendor was caught just because of his US connections.
Although there will probably always be illegal guns in Australia the strict anti-gun laws and busts by the authorities will keep the number of illegal guns in circulation to a very small number. It's very rare that I hear of gun crime being a major problem there. If the big players somehow start buying and using guns too often they will draw attention to themselves because guns are so rarely used there. They will eventually get caught because there are so few gun crimes to investigate that the authorities can throw huge amounts of resources against them.
May 18, 2015, 07:56:24 AM
Prohibition leads to black market and the growth of criminal gangs. If the Australian idiots think that they have dismantled the entire weapons black market by arresting a few small-timers, then they are wrong. The big players will never get caught. In this particular case, the vendor was caught just because of his US connections.
May 18, 2015, 07:43:22 AM
$2,500 for a Walther PPK/S .380 calibre pistol and a silencer! The guy didn't know how to shop, you can get a decent gun for way less.
The sale was made in Australia which virtually has a complete gun ban. It takes 6 months of a sport shooting club membership to be eligible to purchase a handgun that will be strictly used for sport shooting.
When I was in school, I met an Australian student at a US gun range who told me that he unintentionally smuggled about 20 rounds of loose .22 LR ammunition in his carry on bag on one of his trips back to Australia. Somehow it wasn't detected by Airport security. His carry on backpack was also his gun range bag, and this was a long time ago before 9/11 so I believed him then.
Anyway he claims to have sold the 20 rounds of .22 LR (with a cost of 40 cents based on Walmart prices back then) for 200 AUD in Australia to some shady character.
Is .22 rimfire really Unobtaniuim in Australia?
It's not just .22 - it's everything. I've visited friends in Queensland several times in the last few years and yeah it ain't easy to own guns or buy ammo there. They have some pretty fucked up laws about gun ownership where you have to prove a genuine need and a genuine reason to own a gun. You don't just walk into your local Walmart and buy a few boxes of ammo either. They came to visit us in the U.S. one summer and we took them shooting. They were amazed at how many guns we are allowed to own and how much .223 remington we were able to shoot through in one weekend. I remember Curt saying we could take over the entire country of Australia with just the two ammo cans we brought camping with us. lol
May 18, 2015, 06:44:02 AM
$2,500 for a Walther PPK/S .380 calibre pistol and a silencer! The guy didn't know how to shop, you can get a decent gun for way less.
The sale was made in Australia which virtually has a complete gun ban. It takes 6 months of a sport shooting club membership to be eligible to purchase a handgun that will be strictly used for sport shooting.
When I was in school, I met an Australian student at a US gun range who told me that he unintentionally smuggled about 20 rounds of loose .22 LR ammunition in his carry on bag on one of his trips back to Australia. Somehow it wasn't detected by Airport security. His carry on backpack was also his gun range bag, and this was a long time ago before 9/11 so I believed him then.
Anyway he claims to have sold the 20 rounds of .22 LR (with a cost of 40 cents based on Walmart prices back then) for 200 AUD in Australia to some shady character.
Is .22 rimfire really Unobtaniuim in Australia?
May 18, 2015, 05:27:23 AM
While on it's face this kind of headline does make bitcoin look bad (it makes it look like it is only used for trading in illegal things), I think if you read between the lines that you will see that this demonstrates that commerce can be transacted without any kind of geographical limit, and that without putting in a lot of effort, it is difficult to determine the identity of someone using bitcoin by just looking at the blockchain
Some people will not take extra work to read the meaning of this articles because people like to base things just on the headlines. Thats what make news especially about celebrity are the most popular news. If some people see the headlines they will thing that bitcoin is a tool to help criminals
May 18, 2015, 05:08:46 AM
I don't understand how these people are getting their coins seized. They can't have had the properly/safely stored or backed up. Pretty stupid keeping them where you live or conduct your business from if you're doing something dodgy.
Don't talk stupid. Maybe? Of course you can buy guns with cash both online, on the street or at gun shops.
These things will not help bitcoin to go mainstream, I also know you can (maybe) do these things also with all the FIAT currencies... but people like to use bitcoin....
Don't talk stupid. Maybe? Of course you can buy guns with cash both online, on the street or at gun shops.
May 18, 2015, 02:00:16 AM
Only $80,000? Either these guys were small time or the feds didn't get the entire stash. I'm thinking the latter.
Makes me think, when they bust criminals and get fiat, they don't post the bills up for auction... I'm wondering how long until they decide to stop auctioning off seized bitcoins.
Makes me think, when they bust criminals and get fiat, they don't post the bills up for auction... I'm wondering how long until they decide to stop auctioning off seized bitcoins.
i agree. i can't remember the last time i saw an auction for u.s. currency.
so far the us gov has made the best move by selling at auction.
they may keep any coins they seize at this price though :-)
who knows.
May 17, 2015, 11:02:46 PM
Tell that to the FBI agent that got caught laundering DPR's stolen Bitcoins from blockchain analysis/blockchain tracking.
May 17, 2015, 10:20:07 PM
I think bitcoin is finding its niche (and gaining a reputation) as the "go-to currency" when people need to circumvent the law.
The reason for this is simple: Consumers have no inclination to add additional steps into their purchase payment flow. "Hey, have you heard about bitcoin? Let me tell you about this cool extra step you can take to buy things."
However, when it comes to drugs, paying hitmen, cyber crime, hacking ransoms, and gun smuggling it has genuine utility. It's actually useful.
The reason for this is simple: Consumers have no inclination to add additional steps into their purchase payment flow. "Hey, have you heard about bitcoin? Let me tell you about this cool extra step you can take to buy things."
However, when it comes to drugs, paying hitmen, cyber crime, hacking ransoms, and gun smuggling it has genuine utility. It's actually useful.
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