Operation DisrupTor: Over $6.5m in cash and crypto seized by FBI

20kevin20

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Quote from: Jating on September 23, 2020, 06:08:22 AM

it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

How many people can really avoid any kind of leak that could lead to their identity? Very, very few.

Law enforcement will consider you a suspect from the very first moment you begin using cryptocurrencies and/or Tor. It's something they do not like at all. The days of dark web will 'fence' you if you're careful to the extreme.

There was one pedophile that was properly using Tor and couldn't get traced down until intel gave him a "young girl's explicit video" that had some code/script embedded in it, played it online and leaked the info to the authorities. That's how he got caught. If you're using Tor to be completely hidden especially for criminal activity, you have to use it properly and extremely cautious.

This is why they for now like Bitcoin. It's fully transparent, so you need no extra access key or permissions to see all of the addresses and where their money went. Easy to link identities of those who are silly enough to believe Tor Browser is enough to commit crimes over the internet anonymously.

mariah.sadio

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They will neve win drug war. They closed several sites but what about thousands of offline sellers?

Lucius

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Quote from: Shimmiry on September 24, 2020, 11:30:06 PM

Now I wonder, where does the seized money (crypto or cash) are going to after the raids and arrests? Does it go to the government and its department of finance? ... But still, why does with such huge amount, the country is still in huge dept nor haven't changed at all?

In the past, all the seized crypto was sold at public auction, and it is possible that this will happen in this case as well. What happens to the cash is not known to me, but it is certain that it will end up in the system one way or another - it is important that it is laundered from any connection to illegal activities.

You are mistaken that this is a large amount (you should read my previous post) because the debts that the USA has are measured in trillions (thousands of billions) and cannot be solved with a few million dollars.

Quote from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace)

On 27 June 2014, the U.S. Marshals Service sold 29,657 bitcoins in 10 blocks in an online auction, estimated to be worth $18 million at contemporary rates and only about a quarter of the seized bitcoins. Another 144,342 bitcoins were kept which had been found on Ulbricht's computer, roughly $87 million. Tim Draper bought the bitcoins at the auction with an estimated worth of $17 million, to lend them to a bitcoin start-up called Vaurum which is working in developing economies of emerging markets.

bitbollo

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it's a very tiny amount compared to the real annual/global drug trafficking.
I think it's more appealing claim in public this operation linked with bitcoin and dark market.
But at the end there isn't any real advantage for the government since everyone is pretty aware that you need CASH to buy illegal stuffs.
Only a very tiny, single low digit in percentage, involved bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Probably there is a strong interest to claim cryptocurrencies are linked with drugs.
Just 1 narco could get this amount of money in a couple of years (some months ago an Italian Narco has been arrested for keeping millions of EURO buried in a wall at home).

amishmanish

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The name of the operation seem to be on a self-congratulatory note by some small town police party having found a way to track those operating over "Tor" to hide their sale activities, hence DisrupTor. The glee of the police officials is understandable at having caught the "smarty-pants" sitting behind their screens. The age group of defendants confirms that they are probably just a bunch of IT guys who thought they wouldn't be caught if they hid behind darknet. Yet, they are far from the worst of the worst like people have already pointed out.

For example, you never hear about raids and prosecution of all those selling snuff videos and child porn in the darkest corners. We don't even hear about the trillions that the shiny banking monuments have helped launder around for decades. The recent FinCen report seems to have gained nearly zero traction in mainstream media.

Shimmiry

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Quote from: Lucius on September 23, 2020, 08:46:46 AM

It may seem like a lot to some, but $6.5 million is a drop in the ocean when compared to hundreds of billions of dollars in total drug and arms trade. With this operation, they barely touched the dark web and caught only those who are not skilled enough to protect their identity. But I realize that election year is in the USA, every success must be made public so that the current president can brag about his achievements - here is another credit for the Nobel Prize Roll Eyes

Now I wonder, where does the seized money (crypto or cash) are going to after the raids and arrests? Does it go to the government and its department of finance? Or to the government heads alone? Or, does it goes back to the black market or rather are being used by those in positions to transact also in the darknet?

I never expect that darknet servers and owners, regardless if they use crypto or cash, that wouldn't be arrested soon. No wonder what government regime a country have right now, it is still a common task by the Security departments of a country. But still, why does with such huge amount, the country is still in huge dept nor haven't changed at all?

Also, cryptos is just a mere medium of payment. I don't see any problem once your crypto had been mixed with a stolen one nor from the darkweb.

KonstantinosM

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Police can always order the drugs themselves and try to trace them. The criminals just need to think smarter. Maybe they need a decentralized shipping service.

Can't you just drop off stuff at USPS boxes and have them shipped that way? So maybe you do that and ship to a remote post office, have someone unrelated to the deal pick it up and deliver to the final destination. The buyer then assumes most of the risk of getting caught, but since it's only a buyer they get a lesser sentence anyway.

And yeah, this is just the surface. DisruptTor is such a grandiose name. I bet they didn't even take 1% of what's going on out there. But I don't really know the extent of what's happening I don't even check out the dark web for fun. There's really no reason for me to even look.

When silk road came out though the darkweb seemed so alive.

I wonder if there are more drugs for crypto deals going on using traditional communication channels between drug traffickers around the world. Money will be one less thing they'll have to worry about shipping.

But the truth of the matter is banks have always turned a blind eye. I'm sure the biggest drug traffickers just use the banks like you or me.

hatshepsut93

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Quote from: Jating on September 23, 2020, 06:08:22 AM

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

It's not sending any message, this is all just a big game of cat and mouse, darknet markets and criminal organizations get taken down every year, but new ones always emerge to take their empty spot. Of course crypto, especially Bitcoin, won't allow them to remain uncaught 100% of the time, all technologies that are used by criminals have some flaws that can lead to them being exposed, especially if criminals themselves make mistakes, which they often do because they aren't the brightest people.

dothebeats

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It has to be the opium trafficking and fiat laundering that pinned these dudes down and not cryptocurrency.

If they are really keen into solving such things, they wouldn't make crypto look bad by using it as a headliner and instead dig into the actual problem, which is obviously drugs and money laundering. Bitcoin is just a tool temporarily used to facilitate a small part of the trade and not really the vital component for what happened. The narcotics trade would still proceed with or without cryptocurrencies. Physical cash can be used, and if they chose to go that route, then perhaps they might even evade the law enforcement successfully.

Quote from: Jating on September 23, 2020, 06:08:22 AM

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

The moment you used the dark web for querying into such illegal things, that's the time when you are already being watched. With or without crypto, you are already on their list of possible criminals. No matter what currency you use to facilitate such trades, you are bound to get apprehended and put behind bars.

BrewMaster

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Quote from: Jating on September 23, 2020, 06:08:22 AM

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/international-law-enforcement-operation-targeting-opioid-traffickers-darknet-results-over-170

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

this news is so ridiculous on its own but when it comes at the same time frame as this one news here (https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/banks-launder-2-trillion-while-claiming-btc-is-for-money-laundering-5277702) it simply becomes stupid because the number is dwarfed in comparison to what the centralized banks are laundering every day using fiat and are completely immune from law enforcement!

when you want to fight corruption you pull it out from the root not peck at the tip of it a little bit and make big show of that. and the root is the banking cartel...

DarkDays

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Quote from: Jating on September 23, 2020, 06:08:22 AM

So it's sending a message across the globe that the days of dark web will no longer 'fence' anyone, and even if you used crypto, the law enforcement agencies are going to track and hunt you down.

Most of the recovered assets are either physical or fiat, it seem that the proportion of crypto is little. It therefore points to me that this activity was flagged mainly because of the opium and fiat rather than crypto.

This isn't surprising as it greatly aligns with what other studies have found when looking at fiat vs crypto money laundering activities. Consistent findings show that crypto represents only a minor part of money laundering activities with most coming from fiat. One reason for this is the technology barrier crypto provides. Can read more about it here.

As for crypto being a place where illegal activity is being measured, the use of P2P is relatively safe compared to exchanges etc, see image below, and you can read more here.

fiulpro

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This is actually good when they do a good thing without offending anyone , the thing is cryptocurrencies are easy to track whereas when it comes to money, most of the times you are not able to see where it's going and coming from , even though sometimes police might have the tracking number of the cash given by then to the bank or something , they cannot hold anyone accountable for it.

Cryptocurrencies are not supposed to be used for illegal purposes for sure but sometimes people do take it that way , which ultimately causes problems not just for them but for the whole community.

Dark net is already banned in many countries , even accessing it for some time period and getting tracked can put you up for investigation.

avikz

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Quote from: Jating on September 23, 2020, 06:08:22 AM

In a joint operation with different US agencies and other countries, FBI seized of of Weapons, Drugs and over $6.5 Million in cash and crypto. Coordinated effort to stop the trade of opium trafficking in the dark net. Resulting in an arrest of 170 criminals worldwide.

That's great success by the enforcement agencies and congratulations on the arrest of hundreds of criminals. But it's unfortunate that cryptocurrencies are again involved in such big scale drug trafficking case. It seems whatever crime is happening around the world, is somehow getting linked to crypto no matter whether we like it or not! It's not really an ideal scenario when we are talking about organic growth of cryptocurrency into the mainstream economy!

Kemarit

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Quote from: eaLiTy on September 23, 2020, 06:28:16 PM

Quote from: CarnagexD on September 23, 2020, 10:34:14 AM

Can we assume that the crypto is bitcoin? since it is highly used in darknet to buy things, safer than the other cryptocurrencies. Or it is not bitcoin, coz if it is bitcoin they will frontpiece it to the media taking a strong negativity towards the whole crypto community. Or they didn't really know if it is crypto of digital money Roll Eyes

Most of the darknet deals are taking place in Monero rather than BTCitcoin who is having a trail of every transaction made and no one in the right sense would indulge in illegal activities with situation like these. Coming to this raid, it looks like a combined operation against illegal drugs in darknet market places and the focus is not to trash BTCitcoin but to shut down these drug business enterprises globally and when you are doing that you will find many forms of currency including digital and cryptocurrency.

It is just unfortunately, that crypto in this case Bitcoin was being used by this criminals in the dark net. So the focus in not crypto per se, but the drugs that is being proliferation globally thru this dark web marketplace.

But then again, won't simply stop and I'm sure they will find another way to continue their illicit activity be in clearnet or darknet and probably Monero will be more applicable to them and not Bitcoin.

eaLiTy

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Quote from: CarnagexD on September 23, 2020, 10:34:14 AM

Can we assume that the crypto is bitcoin? since it is highly used in darknet to buy things, safer than the other cryptocurrencies. Or it is not bitcoin, coz if it is bitcoin they will frontpiece it to the media taking a strong negativity towards the whole crypto community. Or they didn't really know if it is crypto of digital money Roll Eyes

Most of the darknet deals are taking place in Monero rather than BTCitcoin who is having a trail of every transaction made and no one in the right sense would indulge in illegal activities with situation like these. Coming to this raid, it looks like a combined operation against illegal drugs in darknet market places and the focus is not to trash BTCitcoin but to shut down these drug business enterprises globally and when you are doing that you will find many forms of currency including digital and cryptocurrency.

Sendoku

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Of course it's made to be a big deal, but $6.5 mil is nothing. No wonder this news got covered mainly on governmental sources, especially right before the elections

CarnagexD

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Quote from: 100bitcoin on September 23, 2020, 06:13:43 AM

Quote from: Jating on September 23, 2020, 06:08:22 AM

over $6.5 Million in cash and crypto

At least they wont be able to put all the blame on Crypto. Is it known which Crypto was seized?

Can we assume that the crypto is bitcoin? since it is highly used in darknet to buy things, safer than the other cryptocurrencies. Or it is not bitcoin, coz if it is bitcoin they will frontpiece it to the media taking a strong negativity towards the whole crypto community. Or they didn't really know if it is crypto of digital money Roll Eyes

Quote from: 100bitcoin on September 23, 2020, 06:13:43 AM

Quote from: OcTradism on September 23, 2020, 06:13:03 AM

Will my account and my fund will get trouble by unintentionally involve in such flow of money/ crypto from darknets?

As long as you can show that you received fund from those P2P exchanges, you should be safe. This will indeed help to nab those criminals through your FIAT trail.

Thinking of the same thought, what if someone just sold me a bitcoin third handedly? and I can't provide proof of my innocence? poor kid.

hermawan9416

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Apparently the FBI had been following them for a long time and gathered enough evidence. But this is not the only fish in the pond.

kryptqnick

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Not that it isn't crime and fighting crime is good, but I'd be much happier to see the govs taking down marketplaces with child pornography, human trafficking and other human rights violations, rather than drugs (which, arguably, should not even be prohibited to adults because adults have the right to do what they want with their bodies and since alcohol is legal) or weapons (the right to possess which is sometimes even protected by legislation).
For me, the priorities look the following way:
1. Fighting human trafficking, child pornography, rape.
2. Fighting killers.
3. Fighting money launderers and big drug cartels.
4. Doing what the FBI did in this situation.
And needless to say, they should fight crime regardless of what was used to pay for it, so ignoring regular scandals with huge banks, but focusing or crypto markets is not the way.

The Cryptovator

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If you are involved with illegal activities then your identity would be revealed somehow even you are using cryptocurrency. Its because although cyber force can't trace your cryptocurrency transaction, but they would receive data from your criminal activities. When you will be caught then all the details are involved with the scenery will be revealed. So there is no opportunity to skip just by hiding yourself with using cryptocurrency. We can say this is a message across the globe that, do not get involve yourself with criminal activities either with fiat or cryptocurrency.

Topic: Operation DisrupTor: Over $6.5m in cash and crypto seized by FBI (Read 355 times)