Wired: Suspects Arrested in Online Drug Market Sting

[elux]

Eight suspects in the United States and elsewhere have been arrested and indicted for their involvement in an online drug market accessible only through the TOR anonymizing network that sold LSD, ecstasy, marijuana and other drugs to some 3,000 customers in 34 countries.

Six of the eight suspects reportedly involved in the Silk Road-like site were nabbed in the U.S. The alleged ringleader, Marc Willems, was arrested Monday morning in the Netherlands. His alleged deputy, a U.S. citizen named Michael Evron who lives in Argentina, was arrested Sunday while attempting to leave Colombia.

The operators apparently guaranteed delivery of the drugs to customers all over the world and charged a commission based on the value of the order. They also offered customer support services, including advice on how to package and deliver drugs.

Customers paid for their drugs via Western Union, PayPal, iGolder, Pecunix and cash.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/04/online-drug-market-takedown

[zer0]

Busted due to Hushmail.. why anybody ever trusts cloud encryption??
Paypal for drugs... Wow great job

[evoorhees]

<ArrestedDevelopmentVoice>

And THAT'S why you always use Bitcoin for illicit transactions!

</ArrestedDevelopmentVoice>

[FreeMoney]

woah woah. Are we going to stop using Western Union, PayPal, iGolder, Pecunix and cash (maybe make them illegal??!). People are using it for drugs, and I bet terrorism too.

[Spekulatius]

Silk Road still on? lol

Remember: wupload.com, fileserve.com,.. after the megaupload incident

[zer0]

woah woah. Are we going to stop using Western Union, PayPal, iGolder, Pecunix and cash (maybe make them illegal??!). People are using it for drugs, and I bet terrorism too.

So true
No articles scandalizing the name of Paypal because these drug dealers used it.

[Raoul Duke]

<ArrestedDevelopmentVoice>

And THAT'S why you always use Bitcoin for illicit transactions!

</ArrestedDevelopmentVoice>

You should've (also) put the emphasis on always

[ageisp0lis]

this is a cautionary tale, folks

[kiba]

Police, go catch those murderer, thieves, and human traffickers. Don't bother with the drug trade. That's for doctors.

Sincerely,

A taxpayer.

[Foxpup]

Tor, which operates on a network of computers around the world, anonymizes traffic so that the IP address from which communication originates is masked. Tor traffic is encrypted as it hops from node to node around the world, but is decrypted at the final exit node before being delivered to its destination. Anyone operating a Tor exit node can therefore view the content of communications at that point if the packets themselves are not encrypted, and the destination IP address, even if they are.

Traffic to Tor hidden services doesn't get routed through exit nodes, making it impossible to trace the destination IP address. That's kind of the whole point of hidden services. I'd have expected Wired to get their facts straight... Just kidding, I never expected Wired to get their facts straight.

And why does anyone still expect privacy from Hushmail? The infamous Hushmail Report (PDF) was published nearly 5 years ago. You'd think people would have gotten the message by now...

[MoonShadow]

this is a cautionary tale, folks

What the moral of the story then?  Don't buy contraband on websites that accept paypal?  Don't trust encryption wherein copies of your keys are on file with a corporate server?  Or don't post packages of contraband from an address that can be linked to you?

[Daily Anarchist]

this is a cautionary tale, folks

What the moral of the story then?  Don't buy contraband on websites that accept paypal?  Don't trust encryption wherein copies of your keys are on file with a corporate server?  Or don't post packages of contraband from an address that can be linked to you?

All of the above?

[Nefario]

Did they have the real return address on the packages they sent?

[benjamindees]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/14/harper-summit-americas.html

Colombian president calls for discussion on decriminalizing drugs

The American in Colombia was arrested the next day.  Political theater.

[sd]

What the moral of the story then?  Don't buy contraband on websites that accept paypal?

I don't think the police really care about going after the buyers, but if you do something illegal just be aware that they might come after you. You should not use paypal for anything legal or illegal anyway, they just love locking accounts and keeping the money.

Don't trust encryption wherein copies of your keys are on file with a corporate server?

That's obvious isn't it? Encryption is worthless unless you keep the private key safe. Don't trust people just because they claim to be trustworthy without doing due diligence. And the police can seize any data kept on any public webmail service or any cloud service if it's hosted in any lawful nation, which is basically any nation capable of running these things.

Or don't post packages of contraband from an address that can be linked to you?

Any address can be linked to you if the police throw enough manpower at it, and one of their amazing powers is very large amounts of manpower. If you seriously break the law and keep doing it they will have freaking armies hunting you down. I remember a stolen bank card case in the UK once, a guy was using stolen bank cards to withdraw money from a certain bank. He was withdrawing money the same day each week but never used the same bank machine twice. The police had people watching every single bank machine, freaking thousands of them. The guy didn't show that day so they did the same the next week and caught him.

[hazek]

And why does anyone still expect privacy from Hushmail? The infamous Hushmail Report (PDF) was published nearly 5 years ago. You'd think people would have gotten the message by now...

The only people expecting that are those who saw the word encryption on hushmail's website and never read on past it. If you actually read what hushmail says they openly and clearly state that your email account is encrypted any they can't access what's inside but they are able to intercept your emails when they are sent from or delivered to your account. The only way to protect against that is to use pgp encryption.

[kwukduck]

one of the biggest online illegal underground drug stores?
never even heard of the place ... either it's not so big, or the concept was just flawed to begin with...

[MaxSan]

>sells drugs with paypal
>expects not to get caught
> mfw





Theres plenty of viable ways to do things and this way doesnt seem to be even close to one of them lol.

[Boussac]

This thread must belong to the press board: same story here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=77016.0

[RodeoX]

Chuck Schumer must act to save us from these drug peddling low lives! I mean Western Union, PayPal, iGolder, Pecunix and cash, of course.