Helsinki/Finland Police Arrest 16 in Darknet Investigation

https://www.deepdotweb.com/2017/02/18/helsinki-police-arrest-16-darknet-investigation/

Finland rarely hits the news for darknet busts of any sort, and especially not considerably large busts. However, according to a Finland need source, the country may have just set their own record for darknet address or not man-hour. Police in Helsinki reported the arrest of 16 people in connection with darknet market drug dealing. The record set, though, came from the length of the investigation--three weeks.

Police said the "breakthrough" came from a "legally permitted and secret" investigation into the group. The group, officials told Finland news source YLE, just opened up shop on a darknet marketplace. The darknet, the officials said, required the Tor browser which rendered the group--along with any other users, including buyers--almost entirely anonymous. However, their "intensive online surveillance" helped identify the Helsinki-based clandestine drug syndicate despite the anonymity Tor provided.

They gave no notice as to what their process consisted of, or what methods investigators used to de-anonymize the group.

Although Tor receives praise, and rightfully so, for the anonymity provided in the Tor Browser Bundle, researchers have found critical vulnerabilities on multiple occasions. In September, Firefox developers patched a major security issue. A bug existed that allowed a bad actor to take control of victim's "update server" and perform a man-in-the-middle attack, potentially injecting malicious code into an alleged update. And since developers created the Tor Browser based on Mozilla's Firefox, the two often share both strengths and weaknesses.

More recently, a researcher found a vulnerability that resembled the FBI's code used to de-anonymize members of a child pornography site. The worst part, according to analysts who studied the code, was that some entity actively exploited the vulnerability. To the relief of many Tor users, though, the malicious code used a de-anonymized user's ping for a server in France, meaning the FBI likely played no role in the matter.

Regardless of the method investigators used to identify the group, they saw results shortly thereafter. "During the operation we held 16 drug dealers, who sold illegal drugs on the TOR network. The operation confiscated 220 grams of amphetamines, 4,487 ecstasy pills, 847 grams of marijuana, 426 grams of MDMA crystals, 47 grams of cocaine, 37 cannabis plants and 150 ml of GBL," according to Detective Chief Inspector Jukka Paasio of the Helsinki police department.

The suspects now face six drug charges and another five aggravated drug changes. (For US readers--save for Ohio--aggravated drug charges are just a more severe drug offense). Paasio said that the investigation into the syndicate "expanded and the cases directed police attention to new persons suspected of criminal acts." The authorities released no further details.


Comments


[26 Points] Bars_aregood:

Sounds like they flipped some dumbass shippers. Not sure but it feels like a shipping to ratting situation. How else would they have busted 16 people who probably gad some of that spread out


[18 Points] elfer90:

this is why i always manually download the new Tor Browser Bundle from the Tor Project website when a new version comes out. I don't trust "auto upgrades" or "upgrade from browser"...they can be mitm'd. this is not only for tbb, just about any software with "auto update" enabled can have fake or malicious updates pushed to it. this technique has been around for years..


[11 Points] None:

[deleted]


[3 Points] ethylnaut:

I don't know... Sounds like the should have been more drugs. That little amount was probably just personals.


[3 Points] None:

Can I just throw something out there - Finland isn't a massive country, if the police picked up on Finnish dealers on a DNM, they could have just flooded them with orders in a sustained effort to narrow down where they were shipping from.

It happens in NL too (I was informed by an NL friend of mine), it being such a small country, something as simple as stamps can lead to towns/provinces, and surveillance from there is just a matter of patience.

I can't really envision Finland using zero days to break the Tor Project. It is most likely good ol' police work. Respect to em btw. The day you stop respecting the folks chasing you is the day of your demise


[2 Points] None:

Rats


[2 Points] ahismyidol:

All those drugs.. :(


[2 Points] cidilicious:

Finland is a bit larger than New Mexico.
I would order from multiple accounts to strategic addresses (points) in the confined area. A couple a day. Some sample size, some not so sample size to make quick reorders believable. Then when the packages shipped, use the shipping hubs to narrow my search. Place surveillance based on the knowledge acquired.
Place orders again a week out. Mix up the reorders, add some new.
Now the 3 week problem. Pure luck happens from there. At least in the states.
OR, the stealth absolutely blew and they used their real return address

or someone right purdy teeth squealed.


[1 Points] really_n0t_t0day:

What about the ISP? What stops any ISP to conduct a mass Deep Packet Inspection and alert authorities when somebody is using TOR, then authorities would just have to parse the vendor's online activity with ISP data and that, with a police officer following TOR users IRL would be quite "doable" in a country like Finland, I'm not talking about the US where there might be bigger traffic to TOR. /Tinfoilhat off


[1 Points] lordredvampire:

Hrmm... vendors/admins of DNM shouldn't be using TBB. Alternatively, they would be safe on Qubes OS using Whonix GW template - this is more scalable approach, security-wise.


[1 Points] throwahooawayyfoe:

The operation confiscated 220 grams of amphetamines, 4,487 ecstasy pills, 847 grams of marijuana, 426 grams of MDMA crystals, 47 grams of cocaine, 37 cannabis plants and 150 ml of GBL,” according to Detective Chief Inspector Jukka Paasio of the Helsinki police department.

16 arrests around the country and they managed to net as much as, what, one average NY street dealer?