"Four Australians charged in international illegal firearm sting" (2015-05-14; emphasis added):
...The investigation focused on the trade of illegal firearms via the 'dark web' by a US-based seller using an online alias to a worldwide client base, including Australian-based buyers.
In September 2014, the HSI investigation led to the identification of a 33-year-old man in Montana for the operation of the online alias account. The operation began when ACBPS passed relevant information to HSI. In September 2014, HSI agents commenced a covert operation using the online alias account. This covert operation, which was conducted worldwide, identified suspected Australian-based users attempting to illegally purchase firearms from the undercover covert account. In November 2014, HSI and the AFP commenced a joint operation targeting these users. Intelligence gained from the covert account led to the controlled delivery of six parcels to addresses in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. These controlled deliveries resulted in the execution of 15 search warrants in February and March. Four illegal firearms, ammunition, two clandestine laboratories, precursor chemicals, methamphetamines, pseudoephedrine, steroids, computer equipment and mobile telephones were seized....On a global level, the operation led to 17 arrests across the United Kingdom, Europe and North America. These arrests resulted in the further seizures of firearms, ballistic armor, illicit drugs and USD$80,000 in bitcoins.
In April, I identified "weaponsguy" as a flipped seller and his Agora account was then banned; note that weaponsguy lines up with the date of Moreira's case, the rare firearms product type matches, the location (Montana) matches, the date the account was flipped (September 2014) is before when weaponsguy had to have been flipped (November 2014 or earlier), Australian buyers of firearms from US sellers have been busted in the past, Bitcoins and the dark web are specifically mentioned, and the account is said to have been operated by United States Homeland Security Investigations which I believe the ATF would fall under. (I am not sure why it has taken so long for this press release to come out when the UC account has been useless for a month.)
So we can increase the toll from 1 known case (Moreira in Massachusetts) to 16 unknowns & 17 total (4 Australians, and an unknown mix of 1-10 Americans, 1-10 UKers, and 1-10 Europeans).
People: stop trying to buy guns and poisons. Seriously. It's not going to end well.
Thanks to my anonymous tipster yesterday.
I really wish they wouldn't sell weapons on the same DNM you buy drugs from. It just adds unnecessary heat; and I don't even blame governments on cracking down on this sort of thing as they SHOULD crack down on illegal weapons trading.