In June of 2021, the Nevada High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Enforcement Group 3 arrested four members of a Drug Trafficking Money Laundering Organization (DTMLO) responsible for selling millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine on the dark web and transporting it through the United States Postal Services (USPS).
A 2014 presentation from the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations discussing the criminal use and exploitation of digital currencies such as bitcoin.
Anonymous email services can be used to send personal or work-related messages without leaving a trace of your identity. Truly anonymous email accounts require no personal information to register and retain little usage data. Anonymous email accounts should always be accessed and used in conjunction with an anonymous IP address.
Our BSA analysis of 6048 IP addresses associated with the Tor darknet found that in the majority of the SAR filings, the underlying suspicious activity, most frequently account takeovers, might have been prevented if the filing institution had been aware that their network was being accessed via Tor IP addresses. Darknets are Internet based networks used to access content in a manner designed to obscure the identity of the user and his or her associated Internet activity.
The purpose of this bulletin is to provide awareness and a basic understanding of the “Hidden Internet” to investigators in the field, as well as provide some examples of how the Hidden Internet can be exploited by criminal elements. While the term “Hidden Internet” can be used in a broader context and refer to other internet terms such as the “Deep Web” or “Deepnet,” for the purpose of this bulletin the term “Hidden Internet” will refer to the hidden services provided by the TOR project to internet users, specifically relating to the Silk road website and use of Bitcoins.
Court documents including a criminal complaint, indictment, asset forfeiture and protective orders related to the shut down and seizure of the website the Silk Road.