A 31-year-old taxi driver from Amsterdam was sentenced to 3 years in prison, one of which conditionally suspended, for dealing in drugs and firearms on the dark web. The sentence issued by the court of Rotterdam was one year shorter than what the Public Prosecutor demanded, Het Parool reports.
The court considered it proven that the man sold at least nine firearms, hundreds of ecstasy pills, over an ounce of cannabis and nearly 20 grams of cocaine on the dark web.
The German authorities arrested a total of 11 suspects, including a Dutch national and two persons from Poland, while shutting down Germany's largest online drug shop called 'Chemical Revolution', the General Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt announced. The detainees are suspected drug trafficking and other drug related crimes.
The Public Prosecutor demanded 6.5 years in prison against three men suspected of large-scale drug trafficking through the Hansa Market on the dark web in court on Monday. A female suspect is facing 2 years in prison, eight months of which conditionally suspended.
On the dark web, men in private networks frequently share images on which specifically Dutch children are abused. New material is added every week, including of children who are still being actively abused, according to research by RTL Nieuws, which went undercover on 14 such networks for several months.
The broadcaster said it informed the police about the investigation before publication. The police are monitoring the currently still active networks. The anonymity of the dark web makes it difficult to take these networks offline.
The police took DutchMagic, the largest coffeeshop on the dark web, offline at the end of last year, the police said on Thursday. A 42-year-old man from Hoensbroek in Limburg is in custody and more arrests are expected.
According to the police, millions of euros in soft drugs were sold through DutchMagic per year. The transactions were paid for with cryptocurrency and the drugs were sent through the regular mail.
The Public Prosecutor believes it caught a "big fish" in the distributors of child pornography on the dark web with the arrest of a 26-year-old man from Gorinchem. The court in Rotterdam remanded the man into custody for three months on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.
The man was arrested on January 18th. He has been in restricted custody since then, also denied internet access out of concern that he will warn his 'friends'. Child pornography was found on the man's computer, including material of very young children, the Public Prosecutor said.
The reason that hand grenades are increasingly used as threats in Amsterdam, is because they are cheap and relatively easy to come by, according to Amsterdam Police Chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg. The grenades regularly found in Amsterdam mainly come from Yugoslavia and Russia, and can be bought on the black market or dark web for as little as 5 to 20 euros each, he said to AT5.
Selfies of Dutch teenagers posing with their just obtained driver's license are being sold on the dark web to be used for identity fraud, RTL Nieuws reports based on its own research. The broadcaster found "likely hundreds of potential victims".
On Tuesday the police busted a drug network in Brunssum, Limburg. Four men were arrested for trading drugs on the dark web, and sending drugs all across the world through the regular postal service, the Public Prosecutor announced on Friday.
This investigation was launched after PostNL found drugs in packages during a drug check. According to the Prosecutor, the suspects had clients all over the world and sent drugs, mostly ecstasy, to their clients in normal postal packages and envelopes.
A 28-year-old man from Rotterdam was arrested on Monday on suspicion of having and selling hacked PayPal accounts, the police said in a statement on Wednesday.
The police got wind of this man after dismantling the Hansa Market - one of the largest illegal marketplaces on the Dark Web - in June last year. The dismantling of this marketplace gave the police's High Tech Crime team insight into a number of sellers and buyers, not only in hard drugs but also other items.
A nearly 1 thousand page long manual explaining in detail how pedophiles can lure, groom, and abuse children has been spread in the Netherlands for years. Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security is looking into whether this book can be banned.
Research by RTL Nieuws revealed that this pedophile manual has been available on the dark web for over 10 years. The book is actively shared on forums for pedophiles and supplemented with new tips, experiences and advice. The police confirmed to the broadcaster that the book was used by various Dutch pedophiles.
On Tuesday the police arrested four suspects in Amsterdam and Werkendam in connection with drug trade on the dark web. They acted as vendors and sent drugs to thousands of people world wide, hidden cleverly in makeup powder boxes, Nintendo games and ink cartridges, among other things, the police said in a statement on Friday.
A 15-year-old boy from Amsterdam and an 18-year-old boy from Duiven were arrested for ordering a firearm, with ammunition and silencer, on the dark web. The two were remanded into custody on Friday by the Rotterdam magistrate, NU.nl reports.
The 15-year-old was arrested on October 25th, when he went to pick up the weapon at the older boy's instruction in Breda. An undercover police officer was waiting for him at the address, and arrested him. The Duiven boy was arrested at the same time on Amsterdam Central Station, where he was waiting for his friend to return with the firearm.
Two 23-year-old men were sentenced to six years in prison for selling hard drugs on the ark web. Thijs V. from Houten and Mike W. from Muiden were found guilty of selling at least 400 thousand euros of drugs, mostly MDMA, over a period of eight months, RTL Nieuws reports.
The two men hid the drugs in peanut butter bottles and greeting cards and then sent them by post to customers around the world. "They made every effort to carry out their trade in a refined manner", the court in Midden-Nederland said, according to the broadcaster.
The Dutch police taking down dark web black market Hansa last month, caused some panic among drug dealers who used the site, according to a study by TNO that is in possession of NRC.
The Dutch police, in cooperation with the FBI, took down an international illegal market on the dark web, the police announced in a statement on Thursday. A large number of traders of drugs, jewels and counterfeit goods were arrested, NOS reports.
Early last month the Canadian, American and Thai authorities took down illegal trading place Alphabay. After that many users turned to Hansa, which was now taken down by the Dutch police. That seems to have been part of the plan, because the police managed to track down traders and buyers by keeping the site running for a month.
The Koninklijke Marechaussee arrested six Dutch persons in May and June after taking down an online shop for drugs. The six are suspected of running the online store, the Marechaussee said on Facebook on Tuesday.
The suspects ran the drug shop on the dark web. Drugs were sent to customers through regular parcel services, disguised as packages from other online stores.
The suspects come from Haarlem, Lelystad and Hilversum. They are between the ages of 21 and 55 years, according to the Koninklijke Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military.
Two brothers from Amersfoort are suspected of trying to import half a kilogram of Semtex to use in making plastic explosives, according to the Public Prosecutor. 22-year-old Ali A. and 19-year-old brother Yusuf were caught after the FBI noticed them ordering Semtex and three detonators on the Dark Web and notified the Dutch authorities, AD reports.
Three Dutch people were arrested on Tuesday in a large joint investigation with the United States into drug trade via illegal online market places on the so-called Dark Web, the police announced on Friday.
The main suspect is a 28-year-old man from Broek op Langedijk. He is suspected of trading and exporting "substantial quantities" of narcotics and money laundering. A 29-year-old man from Nieuwe Niedorp and a 26-year-old man from Alkmaar were also arrested on suspicion of involvement in this trafficking. All three are still in custody and will be arraigned on Friday.
On Tuesday the investigative department of the tax authorities FIOD raided 15 addresses and arrested 10 suspects in a large-scale investigation into Bitcoin payments made and received for criminal products and services over the so-called Dark Web, the Public Prosecutor announced.
A joint investigation between the Dutch National Police, the American FBI and an Australian investigation team led to the dismantling of a massive child porn site. A total of 303 suspects, 5 of them Dutch, were arrested.
Dutch criminals are responsible for a large share of the trade of illegal products, especially drugs and firearms, on the so-called Dark Web. One one of the illegal online market places, Dutch retailers even accounted for 10 percent of the orders.
