The alleged administrators of the infamous Bohemia and Cannabia dark web marketplaces have been arrested after apparently shuttering the sites and trying to flee with their earnings.
The arrests came after an investigation that opened in 2022 and saw Dutch Police identify servers related to the souks in the Netherlands. The Politie – Dutch for Police – allege the sites dealt in illicit goods including drugs (primarily cannabis) and DDOS tools, and described them as "the largest and longest running international dark web market of all time worldwide.”
Police determined the sites carried out around 67,000 transactions each month, with record turnover of €12 million achieved in September 2023. Dutch police think the administrators personally made around €5 million from the operation before pulling the exit scam.
The operators of Bohemia and Cannabia apparently became aware of the Politie probe, which disrupted their operations, so in 2023 they allegedly pulled an "exit scam" that saw them close the services and make off with the operations’ funds.
That exit didn’t stop investigators from the Netherlands, Ireland, UK and the USA, leading to two arrests of suspected administrators.
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One was cuffed in the Netherlands and appeared in a Rotterdam court on Thursday.
The other was arrested in Ireland.
"Administrators, sellers and buyers of and on illegal marketplaces often believe themselves to be elusive to the police and the judiciary," said Stan Duijf, head of the operations unit of the National Investigation and Interventions
"By conducting criminal investigations and prosecuting these criminals, it becomes clear that the dark web is not at all as anonymous as users may think. Due to international cooperation, the credibility and reliability of these markets have once again been severely damaged." ®