Vendor accounts of former Hansa drug dealers shut down for good
With the arrest of four suspects on Tuesday March 13 in the Netherlands, the Dutch National Police and Prosecutor’s Office have put an end to the trade of the dark net drug dealers formerly known as Doug-heffernan. The suspects are three men (32 and 50 year-olds from Amsterdam and a 48 year-old from Werkendam) and a woman (a 36 year-old from Amsterdam). They will be brought before an investigative judge in Rotterdam today.
Arrests
The suspects in Amsterdam were arrested while they were logged in on their computers on the Dark web. The fourth suspect was arrested standing next to a set of 3D-printers. The printers seemed to be printing materials intended for the stealth shipping of narcotics.
The police raided a total of five homes and an office in Amsterdam and a home and shed in Werkendam.
Take down of Hansa market
When the Dutch National Police and Prosecutor’s Office take down Hansa market in May 2017, the vendor account of ‘Doug-heffernan’ draws their attention: a Dutch vendor, one of the largest and responsible for the trade in cocaine, XTC, MDMA and other narcotics.
The take down generates a treasure trove of information for Law Enforcement and the identity of persons suspected to have been running the Doug-heffernan account is revealed. However, after the action of the Dutch National Police and Prosecution on Hansa, the name Doug-heffernan has disappeared from the dark net. Other vendor-accounts that seem to have been run by the same suspects, such as ‘CocaCola-Kid’ and ‘Warner Bros’, have disappeared as well. The suspects appear to have shut down their entire trade.
Several months later, new vendor-accounts are set up on the illegal underground marketplace Dream Market. New web shops in narcotics have been set up under the names Smurfs, mr. Bubblebgum, Rubiks, Olaf and Drugsgames. The new darknet-enterprise in illegal narcotics steadily grows until it is shut down by the arrests of last Tuesday. The vendor accounts on Dream market have been seized by the Dutch National Police.
Mail-order narcotics
Together, the four suspects have allegedly dispatched tens of thousands of parcels of mail-order narcotics all over the world. Shipments contained drugs such as LSD, XTC and MDMA. The international trade was meticulously registered. In the digital records of the suspects, shipping-lists have been found that contain the names and addresses of buyers over a period of several years.
To prevent parcels from being intercepted, they were packed in a clever way, making use of materials that seem to have been 3D-printed by the suspects. 3D-printed cosmetics-containers were used to stealthily ship narcotics to customers in e.g. Australia, Singapore or New-Zealand. Narcotics were also packed in Nintendo-games and printer-cartridges.
Printerfarm, cars and fireams
The set of 3D-printers, a so-called printerfarm, that were running when the police entered the shed in Werkendam, were seized. Also seized were a house and shed, three cars, a large amount of narcotics and bitcoins. In Amsterdam as well as in Werkendam a firearm was confiscated.
