The Darknet Shut Down Is A Model for Future Operation, Says Europol Official

 

Different agencies across Europe and America took the responsibility to submit the ever growing drug overdose under control. Many drug users and possessors have been arrested in the past, but that seems to have not had any effect on the drug use.

The agencies this time resorted to uprooting the root of the drug supplies, for the overdose control to fall into place automatically. Even though the FBI launched a similar attack in 2013 on the Old Silk Road, drug trade on the Darknet never ceased to rise after that operation.

A Europol official has therefore said that the Darknet shutdown is a model for future operations.

Recently, authorities embarked on a radical raid which resulted to the shutdown of the two world leading Darknet markets; Alphabay market and the Hansa market.

The operation forced some Darknet news followers to think that online drug trade will even rise more than before just as it happened after the shutdown of the Silk Road.

The FBI Director, Andrew Mccabe gave a thumb up to the perception that online trade will continue to operate despite the Darknet markets shut down; “Our critics will say as we shut down one site another site emerges. And they may be right. But that is the nature of criminal work. It never goes away, you have to constantly keep at it, and you’ve got to use every tool in your toolbox.”

The idea that the operation against these Darknet websites will completely stop the global drug trade is sometimes a joke unless authorities find a way to prevent more Darknet markets from being set up on the Tor browser. If not, then the war against these online platforms will be an unending one, because more will come into the scene when two are shut down.

In the Global Drug Survey, it was revealed by 12,000 respondents that the step of the FBI to shut down the Silk Road market did nothing to stop or prevent the online drug trade. It has even become worse. In that survey, 11,500 people agreed to have purchased illicit drugs through the Darknet markets.

Weighing both sides of the probable outcome of the operation, it will still do much good for the Europol to continuously embark on the raid, as continues operation is likely to instill fear on the many numbers of the drug lords who operate online.

A number of Experts have emphasized that the operation will make it easy in the future for more raid to happen. Robert Wainwright, The Director of the European Union’s law enforcement agency, admitted that the Darknet encourages the sale of illegal substances, and only the combined force of agencies can bring it under control.

In a discussion organized by The George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, Wainwright said; “Of course the Darknet is a key facilitator for various criminal activities including the trade in illicit drugs, illegal firearms, and malware, and only through the combined knowledge, expertise and capacity will the international law enforcement community be in position to tackle these threats, finding solutions for problems related to jurisdiction, access to e-evidence, encryption, anonymization or the use of cryptocurrencies.”

The Darknet platform is designed to be invisible to any ordinal browser. The United States of America and the Europol monitored the Hansa market for about a month before shutting down the Alphabay market.

When the users run to the Hansa, authorities shut it down as well, and it is clear that they have obtained enough information on the various vendors and users as many arrests are ongoing after the shutdown.

In the discussion with Frank Cellufo, Wainwright added that; “I believe that the AlphaBay/Hansa case is a perfect model of coordination and joint international effort and it paves the way for future similar operations.”

It is possible that authorities are even monitoring another Darknet market now.

Wainwright answered to the question about “the deterrence value of the action” that; “By acting together on a global basis the law enforcement community has sent a clear message that we have the means to identify criminality and strike back, even in areas of the Dark Web. There are more of these operations to come.”

Even though the Europol has said that more of the Darknet seizure will happen again, when and how it will occur is unknown.