Dutch Vendor Busted: “HollandOnline”
Posted by: DeepDotWeb
March 12, 2015
Not long after the recent revelation about the large scale bust of Shiny-Flakes, another bust was revealed – this time of the veteran dutch vendor “HollandOnline”:
Arrests for large-scale drug trafficking on the underground marketplaces – March 12, 2015 – Translated from Dutch National Office Of The Public Prosecutor:
On Monday, the Amsterdam and Utrecht police arrested two men on suspicion of large-scale drug trafficking through illegal online marketplaces and money laundering.
Both men (1989 and 1990) were held for examination at home, sitting at their computers based on a previous arrest in December. On Thursday, they were brought before the magistrate in Haarlem, who extended their custody by 14 days.
Previous arrest
On December 16, 2014 Amsterdam police arrested a man after a policeman happened to witness a suspicious transaction earlier that day. The goods were transshipped from the trunk of a BMW driver to the suspect’s Mercedes. It turned out later that the bags contained a fair amount of hard drugs. The Mercedes driver, a 55-year old man from IJmuiden, has been arrested and locked up.
‘Vendor’
The man from IJmuiden was already on the research team’s radar as potentially one of the biggest Dutch sellers (vendors) of narcotics on international underground marketplaces. He operated, amongst others, under the name ‘HollandOnline’ on several anonymous marketplaces, such as Silk Road 1, Silk Road 2.0, and Agora.
Drugs, BMWs and bitcoins
The National Office of the Public Prosecutor (OM) has established further investigation. The man from Amsterdam, who was detained on March 9, is suspected of delivering narcotics to others. Police in Utrecht arrested a suspect in Utrecht on the same day because this man owned a business with the Amsterdam suspect. He is also suspected of drug trafficking and money laundering. Some expensive vehicles, bitcoins worth €150,000 and € 30,000 in cash were confiscated.
Thriving business
Worldwide, illegal goods and services are offered widespread on various criminal marketplaces, such as (hard) drugs, data from stolen credit cards, software to hack computers, counterfeit and other illegal business. Dutch vendors are also active on these anonymous marketplaces. Drugs, for example, are offered there and settled in bitcoins. The shipping is handled by regular mail and parcel businesses and usually goes abroad to stay out of view of the judiciary. Police and the judiciary have already managed to pick up suspects who imagined themselves safe on the TOR network.
Updated: 2015-03-12