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<\/a><\/p>\nOn July 4th, AlphaBay Market\u00a0went down<\/a>\u00a0and scared the hell out of users. One of, if not the most popular destination for illicit goods on the dark net, the site took over Silk Road\u2019s throne after its founder was arrested. According to a new report, AlphaBay has suffered the same fate and international authorities have shut it down.<\/p>\n It\u2019s common for dark net markets to suddenly\u00a0shut down and make off<\/a>\u00a0with a boatload of bitcoins. But according to the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>, AlphaBay\u2019s demise came after a coordinated effort by law enforcement from US, Canada, and Thailand.<\/p>\n Citing \u201cpeople familiar with the matter,\u201d the\u00a0Journal<\/em>\u00a0claims that the site was shuttered and one of its operators, Alexandre Cazes, was taken into custody in Bangkok on July 5th. The\u00a0Bangkok Post<\/em><\/a>\u00a0confirms that the 26-year-old Cazes was awaiting extradition to the US when a guard found him hanged in his cell. He is believed to have hanged himself using a towel.<\/p>\n Camille Habel, a sergeant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police\u2019s high-technology crime unit, confirmed to the\u00a0Journal\u00a0<\/em>that the unit executed a search warrant in Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Quebec on the same day that Cazes was arrested in Thailand.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have any further details about possible co-conspirators.<\/p>\n AlphaBay emerged in 2014, following the death of Silk Road. Andrei Barysevich, a director at Recorded Future Inc., and specialist in dark web matters tells the\u00a0Journal\u00a0<\/em>that it \u201cwas the biggest marketplace on the Dark Web,\u201d taking in a reported $600,000 to $800,000 per day. According to a source speaking with the\u00a0Bangkok Post<\/em>, police seized four Lamborghinis and about $11.7 million in Thai currency from Cazes when they arrested him.<\/p>\n While Silk Road made its name selling drugs, AlphaBay was prolific in its black market products. In the first six months of 2017, it reportedly sold $5 million worth of stolen credit card numbers alone. If a dark net market\u2019s operators decide to take off with the bitcoins that are being held in escrow, users have no recourse.<\/p>\n Emily Wilson, an analyst at dark web monitoring firm Terbium Labs tells Gizmodo:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been saying all along that I don\u2019t think this makes sense as an exit scam. The operation at Alphabay was well run and sophisticated …<\/p>\n I\u2019m very curious to see over the coming days and weeks how users react to the news. The drug community is naturally a little bit more skittish than the fraud community, and I think we will see them more openly discuss their intentions for next steps. The question now remains whether or not the vendors who were trading in non-drug related goods move on to the remaining major markets or if we begin to see a major fraud-related (not just carding-related) market take shape.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was arrested, the FBI seized bitcoins that were worth about\u00a0$33.6 million<\/a>\u00a0at the time. A Secret Service agent who was part of the investigation into Ulbricht was\u00a0later convicted<\/a>\u00a0of stealing $800,000 of Silk Road\u2019s bitcoins. Even if no further accomplices involved with AlphaBay emerge, you never know where one of these cases might go.<\/p>\n