Malta, Europe: - Eight suspects believed to be selling counterfeit euros on the Darknet were arrested by enforcement authorities at the European Police Office (Europol) earlier this month.
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Police claimed that these eight suspects lead (or connect to) a group of hundreds of members in this counterfeiter network. The ringleader of the network was one of the eight arrested.
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Counterfeit euro banknotes in the denomination of 20, 50 and 100 were allegedly sold on the Darknet for 30% of its denominated value. As guessed, they were sold in exchange for bitcoin. The bitcoin were then sold to an exchange in Malta.
Wil van Gemert, Deputy Director of Operations Department at the Europol stated that:
"[...] Hidden services on darknet and payments made with bitcoins give sellers and buyers the false sense of anonymity [...]
By now, most bitcoin users are aware that bitcoin public ledger provides pseudonymity, not anonymity. The moment users surrender their identity to an exchange or wallet provider, all transactions associated with it can be linked.
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On the side note, Swedish police claim that they have de-anonymized about 3,000 Darknet's buyers (legal and illegal purchases, that is) leading to some arrests in Sweden itself.
The Netherlands has started a Darknet site (refer to first picture above) showing the active vendors, the arrested sellers and the identified buyers on the marketplaces. And this is the onion link accessible via browser such as Tor.
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Knowing that no one pleases everyone and there is a flip side to every coin, including Bitcoin. Whether you agree, agree to disagree, or the opposite, do not just take my words for it, be sure to look it up.
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