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

[KonstantinosM]

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.

[Shimmiry]

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

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.

[amishmanish]

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.

[bitbollo]

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).

[Lucius]

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.

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.

[mariah.sadio]

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

[20kevin20]

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.