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Romanian police arrested five men who were behind the most famous contract killing site on the darknet, which was called Besa Mafia, Camorra Hitman, and more recently Hitman Marketplace No1. In fact, the resource was fake, the site administrators did not know any killers, but this did not prevent them from charging from $5000 to $20,000 in bitcoins for the search for performers.
The site was created back in the 2010s and allegedly offered visitors a platform for finding performers for contract killings. Users were asked to submit data about the target, information about how and when the murder should happen, and then asked to pay a "fee" in bitcoins.
From the very beginning, it was clear that the site was most likely a scam, and yet, over the years, the administration has accepted thousands of orders and found many paying customers. Husbands ordered the murders of their wives, business partners searched for killers for their colleagues, a man who lost money on a sports betting site asked to kill a customer service representative who refused to help with a refund, there was even someone who ordered the murder of a 14-year-old.
Many details about Besa Mafia became known back in 2016, when the site was hacked, and information about the site's users and their orders became public. Let me remind you that at that time the resource claimed to be associated with the Albanian mafia.
According to the Romanian Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), the raids and detentions were carried out at the request of the American authorities. The US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have been investigating cases related to this resource for many years. As DIICOT writes,
"U.S. authorities have determined that this group consists of five or more individuals located on Romanian territory and coordinates the operation of these sites and launders money derived from incitement to murder."
As a result, during the operation of law enforcement officers, five people and four witnesses were detained.
Information security expert Christopher Monteiro, who studied Besa Mafia's activity in detail back in 2016 and devoted a series of articles to it on his blog, angered the site's administrators so much that they threatened him personally.
At the time, Monteiro wrote that Besa Mafia was a fraud and, to some extent, an urban legend. However, users of the site took their "orders" seriously, really wanted to cause real harm to other people, and the expert tried for a long time to warn the authorities about this danger.
Unfortunately, law enforcement officers took Besa Mafia seriously only in the 2020s. As a result, according to Monteiro, about 25 customers have been arrested since then, but the administration of the site remained elusive until recently.
For years, authorities did not know who was behind Besa Mafia, as all contact with users was the responsibility of a certain "Yura". He talked to people who asked questions about the killers' services, encouraged them to place orders and tried to dispel all their fears in broken English. Based on the logs of such chats, the authorities assumed that he lived in Eastern Europe (most likely in Romania). At the same time, "Yura" even gave interviews to journalists, changing his voice, but his personality and placeswere not known for certain.
Even now, after all the arrests and searches, it's unclear if Besa Mafia was the brainchild of a single man who developed his "business" to the point where he needed the support of an entire team, or if there was always some kind of group behind the site.
DIICOT reports that the damage from the operation of Besa Mafia is estimated at about 500,000 euros, but if the scammers had stored the bitcoins received in 2016, they would probably be worth much more today.
The aforementioned Christopher Monteiro, who has been trying to draw attention to the problem of Besa Mafia for years, reacted ambiguously to the news about the detention of Yura.
"It's good that an international law enforcement operation led to the arrest of these criminals, but will they ever launch an active investigation into the thousands of names on the death list?" the researcher comments on the pages of Vice Motherboard.
The media also note that Besa Mafia already has many imitators. For example, a journalist from Vice Motherboard writes that he easily found a similar site on the darknet, aimed at a Russian-speaking audience. From there, he moved to Telegram, where he asked how he could find the killer in Los Angeles. The owners of the resource responded to him within minutes, saying that they would be able to arrange everything quickly, and the murder would cost $15,000.
Video:
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The tale of how fake killers from Romania on the darknet took orders for murders
Fox News published an interesting story about how in 2020, British journalist Carl Miller [pictured left] teamed up with white hat hacker Chris Monteiro [pictured right] to identify a fraudulent darknet site offering liquidation services for money.
On the site, murder orders were allegedly accepted for cryptocurrency, but in fact it was a common scam for fans of banned on the darknet. The illegal business was managed by a group of cyber fraudsters from Romania. As soon as the scammers received money from customers, they immediately went into the sunset. According to their logic, no one in their right mind would risk complaining to the police about an unfulfilled order.
An ethical hacker, Monteiro managed to find a vulnerability in the site's code and gain access to the content, including lists of potential victims (Kill Lists), as well as all related information on them. Customers sent the "killers" various data to fulfill the order: names, addresses, photos and even travel routes.
Prices for services varied depending on the circumstances. For example, the cheapest order was recorded in the UK related to a love triangle: one of the store employees ordered the elimination of another employee for 100 pounds (about $126) in a battle for the love of a male boss. In another case, an American doctor paid more than $50,000 to eliminate a person. On average, the cost ranged from $10,000 to $40,000.
Miller and his team turned over 175 homicide requests to the police, resulting in 32 arrests with cumulative sentences of more than 150 years.
According to Miller, his information was initially treated with disbelief: the police in Spain literally laughed in his eyes, and in the United States they suggested that the journalist himself could be involved in the organization of the site. Only after the intervention of the FBI did the investigation get off the ground.
Notably, Miller and his colleagues have gone beyond journalistic work by warning potential victims directly over the phone. The journalist admits that such a step was unusual for his work, but necessary due to the lack of a proper reaction from the police, he wanted to help people. Some victims took the threats calmly, while others experienced a constant sense of fear.
Source
The site was created back in the 2010s and allegedly offered visitors a platform for finding performers for contract killings. Users were asked to submit data about the target, information about how and when the murder should happen, and then asked to pay a "fee" in bitcoins.
From the very beginning, it was clear that the site was most likely a scam, and yet, over the years, the administration has accepted thousands of orders and found many paying customers. Husbands ordered the murders of their wives, business partners searched for killers for their colleagues, a man who lost money on a sports betting site asked to kill a customer service representative who refused to help with a refund, there was even someone who ordered the murder of a 14-year-old.
Many details about Besa Mafia became known back in 2016, when the site was hacked, and information about the site's users and their orders became public. Let me remind you that at that time the resource claimed to be associated with the Albanian mafia.
According to the Romanian Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), the raids and detentions were carried out at the request of the American authorities. The US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have been investigating cases related to this resource for many years. As DIICOT writes,
"U.S. authorities have determined that this group consists of five or more individuals located on Romanian territory and coordinates the operation of these sites and launders money derived from incitement to murder."
As a result, during the operation of law enforcement officers, five people and four witnesses were detained.
Information security expert Christopher Monteiro, who studied Besa Mafia's activity in detail back in 2016 and devoted a series of articles to it on his blog, angered the site's administrators so much that they threatened him personally.
At the time, Monteiro wrote that Besa Mafia was a fraud and, to some extent, an urban legend. However, users of the site took their "orders" seriously, really wanted to cause real harm to other people, and the expert tried for a long time to warn the authorities about this danger.
Unfortunately, law enforcement officers took Besa Mafia seriously only in the 2020s. As a result, according to Monteiro, about 25 customers have been arrested since then, but the administration of the site remained elusive until recently.
For years, authorities did not know who was behind Besa Mafia, as all contact with users was the responsibility of a certain "Yura". He talked to people who asked questions about the killers' services, encouraged them to place orders and tried to dispel all their fears in broken English. Based on the logs of such chats, the authorities assumed that he lived in Eastern Europe (most likely in Romania). At the same time, "Yura" even gave interviews to journalists, changing his voice, but his personality and placeswere not known for certain.
Even now, after all the arrests and searches, it's unclear if Besa Mafia was the brainchild of a single man who developed his "business" to the point where he needed the support of an entire team, or if there was always some kind of group behind the site.
DIICOT reports that the damage from the operation of Besa Mafia is estimated at about 500,000 euros, but if the scammers had stored the bitcoins received in 2016, they would probably be worth much more today.
The aforementioned Christopher Monteiro, who has been trying to draw attention to the problem of Besa Mafia for years, reacted ambiguously to the news about the detention of Yura.
"It's good that an international law enforcement operation led to the arrest of these criminals, but will they ever launch an active investigation into the thousands of names on the death list?" the researcher comments on the pages of Vice Motherboard.
The media also note that Besa Mafia already has many imitators. For example, a journalist from Vice Motherboard writes that he easily found a similar site on the darknet, aimed at a Russian-speaking audience. From there, he moved to Telegram, where he asked how he could find the killer in Los Angeles. The owners of the resource responded to him within minutes, saying that they would be able to arrange everything quickly, and the murder would cost $15,000.
Video:
---------
The tale of how fake killers from Romania on the darknet took orders for murders
Fox News published an interesting story about how in 2020, British journalist Carl Miller [pictured left] teamed up with white hat hacker Chris Monteiro [pictured right] to identify a fraudulent darknet site offering liquidation services for money.
On the site, murder orders were allegedly accepted for cryptocurrency, but in fact it was a common scam for fans of banned on the darknet. The illegal business was managed by a group of cyber fraudsters from Romania. As soon as the scammers received money from customers, they immediately went into the sunset. According to their logic, no one in their right mind would risk complaining to the police about an unfulfilled order.
An ethical hacker, Monteiro managed to find a vulnerability in the site's code and gain access to the content, including lists of potential victims (Kill Lists), as well as all related information on them. Customers sent the "killers" various data to fulfill the order: names, addresses, photos and even travel routes.
Prices for services varied depending on the circumstances. For example, the cheapest order was recorded in the UK related to a love triangle: one of the store employees ordered the elimination of another employee for 100 pounds (about $126) in a battle for the love of a male boss. In another case, an American doctor paid more than $50,000 to eliminate a person. On average, the cost ranged from $10,000 to $40,000.
Miller and his team turned over 175 homicide requests to the police, resulting in 32 arrests with cumulative sentences of more than 150 years.
According to Miller, his information was initially treated with disbelief: the police in Spain literally laughed in his eyes, and in the United States they suggested that the journalist himself could be involved in the organization of the site. Only after the intervention of the FBI did the investigation get off the ground.
Notably, Miller and his colleagues have gone beyond journalistic work by warning potential victims directly over the phone. The journalist admits that such a step was unusual for his work, but necessary due to the lack of a proper reaction from the police, he wanted to help people. Some victims took the threats calmly, while others experienced a constant sense of fear.
Source
