I just wrote a long post but and accidentally deleted it, so unfortunately or fortunately here is a shorter version. I can answer more tomorrow night.
I know this is pure hearsay but i'm not looking to start negativity
A friend is high(ish) up in the UK HR Revenue & Customs, he knows i dabble in BTC and other wares. He said that a large operation is underway involving several countries in the EU and the US although he didn't mention any US vendors to me. He said postal services, especially Royal Mail have been inspecting parcels and police have successfully profiled several vendors. 1 or 2 have been arrested and one has been compromised and his being used on the Silkroad forums.
He said this was all to do with the recent announcement of the EU based crackdown on DNMs but said this had already been in effect for a while and was surprisingly spearheaded by Holland. Now remember he said this to me face to face so i can't copy and paste everything but using what i remembered i was able to get the fll usernames for the vendors and give you most the info he gave me accurately.
The vendors named were
Cornettos
Bungee54
Domopost
He named others but i can't remember them. Also mentioned about a new scanner being deployed used by Royal Mail but said it was about terrorism.
Final edit he mentioned something about North London but that may of been the location of the scanner
Update:
Found the forum posts i mentioned from Cornetto
We were targeted, they ordered from us daily. They must have to get prooldiucts from all locations.
ITS NOT SAFE FOR US TO RESHIP ANYTHING AS WE STRONGLY BELIEVE ADDRESSES COMPROMISED. THEY CANNOT ACTUALLY PROVE AS NOTHING CAN COME OF IT, SO DONT ADMIT ANYTHING. ALTHOUGH ADDRESSES NOT MARKED YET - THEY MAY BE IN THE FUTURE. JUST TAKE PRECAUTIONS IF YOUR ORDERING LARGER QUANTITIES OR CLASS A DRUGS FROM ANYWHERE.
WE PREFER TO RESHIP TO NEW ADDRESSES. WE DO NOT HAVE A PGP KEY YET.
As I said the LE theory is strongly what I believe. So much so we are on serious alert >and waiting for things to unfold.
And
Like I said, please CHANGE DROPS IF ORDERED FROM US. That is all i ask The shit has hit the fan, its only a matter of time, something wil come of this, I know it.
I'm usually reaching for my tin foil hat halfway through these posts but this actually seems very plausable