Admins of Bohemia and Cannabia Darknet Marketplaces Arrested

As a result of an international law enforcement operation in the Netherlands and Ireland, two out of three administrators of the darknet marketplaces Bohemia and Cannabia have been arrested. These platforms were known for hosting listings for the sale of illegal narcotics, as well as for organizing DDoS attacks.

Details of the Arrests

According to reports, one of the men, whose name has not been disclosed, was detained at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on June 27, 2024. Authorities seized electronic devices containing “compromising data” and keys to access Bitcoin wallets from him.

The second administrator of Bohemia and Cannabia was also arrested in Ireland as part of the same operation.

Seizure of Cryptocurrency and Marketplace Activity

In total, police from the Netherlands, along with law enforcement from Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, seized over $8.77 million in cryptocurrency from the suspects.

According to authorities, in September 2023 alone, Bohemia and Cannabia had a turnover of more than $13 million. The marketplaces hosted 82,000 listings and facilitated over 67,000 transactions each month. The administrators reportedly earned about $5.5 million from Bohemia and Cannabia.

Investigation and Marketplace Shutdown

Dutch police state that they investigated the activities of these darknet platforms from late 2022 to late 2023. Afterward, Bohemia and Cannabia experienced several outages and eventually shut down.

At the time, it was believed that the marketplaces’ problems were due to a conflict among developers, and that the administrators may have learned that law enforcement was investigating them. Ultimately, the admins performed an exit scam, disappearing with users’ funds. Authorities now say they were able to trace the money, which was split among the Bohemia and Cannabia administrators, and have identified those involved.

Infrastructure and Ongoing Investigation

Part of the infrastructure for Bohemia and Cannabia was located in the Netherlands and is now under law enforcement control. Many marketplace participants had already been identified and arrested earlier, and as new evidence is found in the seized infrastructure, police expect further arrests.