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Surprise visit: Police warn alleged darknet drug buyers

Posted February 15, 2018 6:00 am

The Associated Press

DRIEBERGEN, Netherlands (AP) - Dutch and American police have paid unannounced visits to nearly 100 people they say bought drugs via a "darknet" marketplace that Dutch police took over last year.

Dutch police say they visited 37 alleged buyers on Wednesday and Thursday and arrested one person over the weekend on suspicion of buying 150 ecstasy pills via the "darknet," a part of the web used for illicit internet commerce. U.S. law enforcement agents carried out similar visits this week.

The so-called "knock and talk" operations on both sides of the Atlantic followed the takedown last year of leading darknet marketplace Hansa Market. Dutch detectives secretly took over the site in June and acted as its administrators, collecting usernames and passwords and logging data on thousands of drug sales.

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