Netherlands Police Bust a Massive Darknet Vendor Under New Aliases

Netherlands police ended the career of one of the largest darknet dealers involved in the MDMA, ecstasy, and cocaine trade. According to the official press release, the four suspects were behind the vendor accounts Doug-Heffernan, Smurfs, Mr. Bubblebgum, Rubiks and DrugsGames. They shipped tens of thousands of packages across the globe, police said.

Raids were executed at five houses in Amsterdam and at another in Werkendam. The police seized three vehicles, drugs, bitcoin, and 3D printers. Three suspects got busted in their Amsterdam homes and one suspect caught in Werkendam. Thanks to careful planning on the police’s end, none of the suspects expected their impending incarceration. The three Amsterdam suspects had been using their computers during the raid. More specifically, the Amsterdam suspects were arrested while logged into their darknet market accounts.

Police caught the Werkendam suspect in an equally compromising position. They caught him with a selection of 3D printers. In other darknet busts, the presence of 3D printers would have little impact on the case. If any. But these 3D printers played a role even the police called “smart.” For stealth, the alleged drug traffickers had had printed lookalike Nintendo game cartridges, makeup boxes, or similar containers. They shipped the drugs hidden inside inconspicuous objects they had printed. The Werkendam suspect handled the group’s printing and shipping, the police reported.

The vendor Doug-Heffernan caught the Dutch police’s attention during the 2017 Hansa takeover. Police had allegedly identified the entities behind Doug-Heffernan after they pulled the market from the darknet. The press release did not reveal any details regarding the identification. However, a surprising number of vendors downloaded and opened vendor-locktime-tx.xlsx. Police collected the clearnet I.P. addresses of 64 vendors.