Dutch Police Take Down Bohemia/Cannabia Dark Market Place Admins

The Dutch authorities have taken down the Bohemia and Cannabia dark web market, which was known for selling all sorts of illegal products, including drugs, DDoS attacks and many other cyber-related items.

Dark web markets are much more prevalent than people know, and authorities are always working to close them down. Despite numerous closures over the years, such as WT1SHOP and Piilopuoti, many of these markets still operate. Bohemia and Cannabia is one of the more famous ones, even though it was closed down since the end of 2023.

The market had some technical problems at the end of 2023, and one of the market’s administrators chose to end their services with an “exit scam.” They divided the money they made from the markets and closed down the website, but the authorities still tracked them. It turns out that a few of the servers were in the Netherlands, and the Police arrested a suspect believed to be one of the admins. A second suspect was arrested in Ireland.

Besides the other illegal items sold on the market, like drugs, Bohemia and Cannabia was also known for distributing DDoS as a service and various strands of malware.

“It was a large market, with around 82,000 advertisements worldwide every day,” the Dutch Police explained. “Around 67,000 transactions took place every month. The highest monthly turnover was 12 million euros (in September 2023). Never before has a dark web market of this size been discovered by the police. The estimated earnings of the administrators of this market are 5 million euros.”

One suspected admin of the marketplace was arrested in June in the Netherlands. He allegedly had a lot of data and bitcoin in his possession, but more than 8 million euros in virtual currency was seized during the arrest of the suspects.

The Dutch Police, through the voice of Stan Duijf, Head of Operations Unit National Investigation and Interventions, wanted to underline that, even if criminals think of themselves as elusive, the dark web is not at all as anonymous as users may think.