The Story of AlphaBay, the World’s Largest “Dark Web” Marketplace

Drug dealing, identity theft, money laundering… Imagine a dark web market where they all go on at the same time. That’s it, It was none other than AlphaBay. Moreover, the audience reached was so large that the owner became a millionaire.

If you are ready, who owns AlphaBay, what happened in the market, How much income did he earn from this black trade? Let’s answer the questions of what happened next.

The dark web was a place where drug dealing could be done easily.

In the early 2000s, Silk Road The market named was the most well-known drug trading address on the dark web. There wasn’t even any competition in the market, just having that site was enough. However, in 2010, the head of Silk Road was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment to set a precedent.

Do you think this punishment deterred others? No. On the contrary To take the vacant throne of Silk Road The competition has begun. Many more drug sales addresses were revealed. AlphaBay was one of them.

The market founded by a 22-year-old young man made him a multimillionaire in just 3 years.

Canadian Alexandre Cazes, who was just 22 years old when he founded his market, according to US government documents The world’s most profitable dark web market He was a millionaire.

Alexandre, with the username “Alpha02”, had approximately $23 million in cash, as well as He owned property and vehicles worth $12.5 million. So how did he win all this? We’ll see.

Drug distribution, identity theft, money laundering, firearms, computer hacking…

Founded by Alexandre in 2014, AlphaBay was the first 14,000 users in 90 days It was a market accessible via the dark web. As of 2015, it had over 200,000 users and over 30,000 products were listed on the website. At first, only credit card information was sold. Afterwards, many products such as drugs began to be sold to make the business more profitable.

AlphaBay accepts Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies as payment methods. Hide the identities of moderators and users. The design of the site resembled Amazon in its simplicity. The growing site had already defeated its competitors and taken the throne of Silk Road.

According to official documents, the annual sales of the market amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Alexandre went to Thailand with his wife with the money he earned there. a luxurious life was alive. He owned many cars like Lamborghini and multiple properties. They had a presence in Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Antigua and Barbuda. In short, he was a multimillionaire.

Moreover, you get all this from every sale. 2% to 4% commission He did it by taking it. He wasn’t the only employee either. He had a right-hand man, a public relations manager, and many moderators. Since he was the founder and mastermind of the site, he was not very interested in the business. While Alexandre was enjoying himself in his villa and luxury cars, the FBI was actively searching for him.

They could easily reach the sellers, but Alexandre was very difficult to find.

When they entered the site, the name of the seller of the product was written, just like on Amazon. The police could easily find them, but what they really wanted to reach was He was the brains behind everything. No matter how much they thought and researched, they could not find Alexandre. The police were now desperate too.

One day, one of the cops was browsing the site on his computer when he noticed something. This is it The smallest detail a police officer sees Thanks to this, events would go smoothly.

Alexandre’s mistake led to his arrest.

Alexandre’s personal email address was visible on the Internet. in the header in emails sent to users who have forgotten their AlphaBay passwords. “[email protected]” address It was located. Moreover, this man was a successful computer expert. What an amateur mistake…

The police noticed this and immediately told the team. trace the address government, FBI and 11 agencies from different countries; He tried to reach Alexandre Cazes. The 91 in the email represented his birth year. He had also previously left a comment on a site via this email. His name was also written in the comment.

Now they knew who the person they were looking for was and arrest warrant was out. Cazes, who was caught during a raid on his home and arrested as a suspect of multiple crimes, was kept in a cell at the Bangkok Anti-Narcotics Bureau. Meanwhile, negotiations regarding his extradition to the USA were continuing.

Alexandre killed himself and dozens of people.

A few hours before meeting with prosecutors, Alexandre was found dead. The shadowy multimillionaire had committed suicide. Because of the products he sells, many people in America overdose deaths was also detected.

Thus, the era of one of the trading markets that revolved in the dark layers of the internet came to an end. Of course, there are currently many applications such as AlphaBay. dark web market to operate, Authorities continue their efforts to identify him.

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