The takedown of dark-web news and information site DeepDotWeb, which had quietly made millions of dollars from offering promotional links to black market sites in a kind of underground affiliate marketing scheme.
The portal provided links to a number of darknet markets, which are reachable only via the anonymizing Tor browser. Such markets sell illegal narcotics, firearms, counterfeit currency, malware, stolen jewelry, stolen payment card data and more. The portal also listed the top markets as well as their availability status.
But police say that DeepDotWeb was also earning referral fees from sending users to darknet markets, which, over time, earned the portal’s administrators bitcoins worth millions of dollars. Police say the referral fees came from at least 15,000 users.
Europol is the EU’s law enforcement intelligence agency.
Arrests of suspected DeepDotWeb administrators were first reported on Tuesday by Israeli media, including The Times of Israel.
Tel Aviv Police say that as part of the cross-border operation involving the FBI, Europol and others, its detectives arrested a 35-year-old resident of Tel Aviv and a 34-year-old resident of Ashdod.
As part of the operation, other suspected administrators were arrested in Brazil, France, Germany and the Netherlands, police say.
“The investigation revealed that the suspects operated a website that contained references to illegal sales sites in a dark network where weapons, drugs, abductions, stolen credit cards and more can be purchased,” Tel Aviv Police say. “The suspects used the ‘affiliate marketing’ method through which they profited from every sale made, thus earning millions of dollars. Payment for the completed transactions was transferred to the suspects via the digital currency ‘bitcoin.'”
Police in Brazil say that the primary suspect was an Israeli citizen residing in Brasilia, who was arrested earlier this week at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. At the same time as the suspect was arrested by French police, authorities in Brazil said they executed a search warrant at the suspect’s home in Lago Sul, Brazil, where they recovered cryptocurrency as well as $50,000 in cash.
Police say the primary suspect amassed some of those funds by DeepDotWeb referring some 15,000 users to darknet markets, where they illegally bought or sold goods, after which the suspect “obtained a share of the proceeds from illegal product transactions.”
Em ações simultâneas, enquanto o investigado era preso em #Paris, na #França, buscas eram realizadas em sua casa, em Brasília. Na busca foram apreendidos dispositivos utilizados para a guarda de criptomoedas e R$ 200 mil em espécie (moeda estrangeira e reais). pic.twitter.com/hNMXM40SaQ— Polícia Federal (@policiafederal) May 7, 2019