International cybercriminals and Thailand’s porous border  

By Jintana Panyaarvudh 
The Nation

 

Police guard a luxury car seized from Alexandre Cazes, founder of the “darknet” marketplace AlphaBay.

 

Alexandre Cazes won’t be the last darknet mogul to make our country his home 

 

Thailand has long been a haven for foreign criminals, a convenient base to plot and commit crimes or just to hide out. 

 

Thai law enforcers have fought back, joining with their counterparts overseas to arrest a string of notorious terrorists, criminals and gangsters on our soil. 

 

The list runs from “Bali Bomber” Hambali, al-Qaeda’s chief in Southeast Asia, to Mozambican Momade Assif Abdul Satar, Interpol’s prime suspect for more than 50 kidnappings and murders, to infamous Lao drug kingpin Xaysana Keopimpha. The latest big fish netted on Thai soil is Alexandre Cazes, founder of the “darknet” marketplace AlphaBay. 

 

The size of the haul is impressive, but it attests to huge holes in our perimeter security. Thailand’s borders are notoriously porous. Criminals travelling on fake passports ease through Immigration with the help of well-placed bribes. Others bypass checkpoints altogether and sneak in unnoticed via jungle or sea. 

 

Once inside, evading the attentions of police is much easier, making efforts to bring them to justice difficult or near impossible. 

The challenge for police has become trickier still with the advent of untraceable cryptocurrency, which is oiling international crime.

At a recent Bangkok seminar on Internet criminality, government agencies pleaded for new legislation to fight a growing wave of cybercrime that, they said, is about to skyrocket.

 

An early warning came with the arrest of Cazes, aka DeSnake, in Bangkok last year. 

 

AlphaBay and the FBI

 

The Canadian was the focus of an FBI investigation, accused of  co-founding and running AlphaBay, a darknet hub for drug trafficking and money laundering. The website sold class A drugs, illegal pornography, stolen credit cards and weapons of war. 

 

AlphaBay was shut down on July last year after two years in operation, and transactions in bitcoin and other digital currencies worth more $1 billion. Cazes had left no paper-money trail for the police to follow or identify him.

 

The FBI lavished huge resources and manpower to flush out the 26-year-old fugitive but came up empty-handed. Finally, after several years of investigations, he was tracked to Thailand. The Feds then asked for help from the Thai police. 

 

Initially, the FBI lacked evidence to secure an arrest warrant, explained Pol Colonel Pisal Erb-Arb, deputy commander of Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB), who took part in the joint operation.

 

Thai police did some digging and discovered Cazes was married to a Thai woman and enjoying and a life of luxury unsupprted by any visible business concerns. 

 

Police found he had paid cash for an Bt80-million home at the Private House estate in Bangkok’s Thawi Watthana District and also owned a Phuket villa worth Bt200 million. Parked in the driveway were a gleaming set of luxury cars. None of the property was in his own name.

 

 

Thai breakthrough

 

Police asked the court for an order to access his IP address to monitor his financial transactions. Not long after they spotted a huge amount of bitcoin transferred to the couple’s account and Cazes sending Bt30 million to an account in Cyprus. 

 

The evidence confirmed FBI suspicions and US authorities promptly issued an arrest warrant, Pisal said. 

 

Cazes was arrested at his home in July last year, in what US Attorney General Jeff Sessions called “one of the most important criminal investigations of this entire year”. 

 

The darkweb mastermind was found dead a week later in a cell at the NSB. Police said all evidence pointed to suicide. Authorities then confiscated more than Bt726 million of Cazes’ Thai assets. 

 

The saga sounds like the plot for a Hollywood movie, but NSB officers certainly played the starring role. 

 

 “The FBI said we had to capture him alive, with his computer online and his mobile phone unlocked,” said Pisal. 

 

Plan A was to have a police officer disguised as a postman deliver mail to his home – but Cazes never showed up to take delivery. It was always his wife or the maids that picked up the mail. 

 

Pisal then came up with the idea of faking an accident in front of the house in hope that the suspect would rush down to check any damage to his cherished supercars.

 

The hunch paid off. 

 

Cazes arrived at the door and the police pounced. He rushed to tell his wife to turn off the computer, but officers got their first to make sure the machine was still online. 

 

There was still the problem of the locked phone, though. Police already knew that Cazes had been having an affair. They told him he was being arrested on a charge of having an affair with another man’s wife. 

 

“We told him that the husband [of the woman] would settle the case if he [Cazes] phoned the husband,” Pisal recounted. 

 

Cazes was stunned to hear his lover was married. He promptly phoned the husband – in reality, a policeman – and offered to pay Bt100,000 as compensation. The “husband” demanded Bt1 million and without missing a beat Casez asked for his bank account code. 

 

As the conversation ended the police seized his phone – which he had unlocked. 

 

“If his computer or mobile phone had been found locked and encrypted, it could have taken around 300 years to crack the code,” Pisal said. 

 

Cazes’ life of crime may have ended in capture and death, but the story of international cybercrime is only just beginning in Thailand.  

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30354431

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-09-14

This part is quite interesting, in my opinion:  

 

 

 

The darkweb mastermind was found dead a week later in a cell at the NSB. Police said all evidence pointed to suicide. Authorities then confiscated more than Bt726 million of Cazes’ Thai assets. 

You couldn't make this stuff up ...........

3 hours ago, webfact said:

“If his computer or mobile phone had been found locked and encrypted, it could have taken around 300 years to crack the code,” Pisal said.

Or 300 baht at MBK.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

untraceable cryptocurrency, which is oiling international crime.

and international freedom. 

25 minutes ago, Darcula said:

Or 300 baht at MBK.

Is this the same darkweb criminals liked to use with phones to send text message encrypted?

 

Those were sold in spyshops in holland but since the police hacked the encrypted servers in Canada many of the vendors of those phones got killed. Also many criminals are arrested since the police can use the cracked encrypted messages as proof.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand has long been a haven for foreign criminals, a convenient base to plot and commit crimes or just to hide out.

 

The list runs from “Bali Bomber” Hambali, al-Qaeda’s chief in Southeast Asia, to Mozambican Momade Assif Abdul Satar, Interpol’s prime suspect for more than 50 kidnappings and murders, to infamous Lao drug kingpin Xaysana Keopimpha. The latest big fish netted on Thai soil is Alexandre Cazes, founder of the “darknet” marketplace AlphaBay. 

 Good guys in etc....

Thailand provides the atmosphere. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Once inside, evading the attentions of police is much easier,

What don't they do 90 day reports???

Why Thailand? Why not?

 

Nice food, you can get all luxuries, and if police stops you you just pretend to not speak English and after 10 minutes they will let you go.

Troll posts have been removed.

1 hour ago, Thian said:

Is this the same darkweb criminals liked to use with phones to send text message encrypted?

 

Those were sold in spyshops in holland but since the police hacked the encrypted servers in Canada many of the vendors of those phones got killed. Also many criminals are arrested since the police can use the cracked encrypted messages as proof.

If there was no encryption, you would not have money in the bank.  Yes, bad people use encryption, but it does far more good than harm.  Businesses could not run without  encryption.  You do not need to go to a spy shop.  Encryption is free for all to use. 

... so VPN’s don’t work ? Or the guy was not that clever. 

42 minutes ago, mindfulness said:

... so VPN’s don’t work ? Or the guy was not that clever. 

Sloppy more likely.  You drive those sorts of cars in Thailand as a farang you are not clever.  Career day in high school the top cop in our area said :  " Good criminals don't get caught ".    

Quote

government agencies pleaded for new legislation

Any more legislation in Thailand and it will sink to the centre of the earth. You can't fart here without breaking some legislation somewhere. Heres an idea, try actually enforcing the legislation you do have before making any new ones. I suspect they have forgotten what they already passed into Law. Im pretty sure their computer crimes act covers just about anything related to this article...and then some!

Thailand would continue to be a capital for criminals and fugitives.

“The saga sounds like the plot for a Hollywood movie,“

 

Why not a Thai movie? Looking at the image, it would seem more real,  and actresses interpret their role very well.

It sounds like quite good investigative work in a sophisticated joint operation.  The Thai police should be given credit for their part.  Of course it always more popular to criticize here.

 

2 hours ago, yellowboat said:

and international freedom. 

Depends on whose interest it is, and to whose disadvantage it is. 

3 hours ago, alfalfa19 said:

This part is quite interesting, in my opinion:  

 

 

 

The darkweb mastermind was found dead a week later in a cell at the NSB. Police said all evidence pointed to suicide. Authorities then confiscated more than Bt726 million of Cazes’ Thai assets. 

Yup. Once he handed that unlocked phone over to somchai he was a dead man walking. 

6 minutes ago, micmichd said:

Depends on whose interest it is, and to whose disadvantage it is. 

Interest : slaves

Disadvantage : slave masters

Freedom is in everybody's best interest, except those who crave to subjugate others. What point are you trying to make ?

he look like Tony Kenways brother

Edited September 14, 20187 yr by catman20

The nearly three quarters of a billion baht in Thai assets...what about the bitcoin? 

A list of high profile cases, the RTP must have been pissed they had to arrest them at the request of foreigners and not get to squeeze them for a while. 

"

AlphaBay was shut down on July last year after two years in operation, and transactions in bitcoin and other digital currencies worth more $1 billion. Cazes had left no paper-money trail for the police to follow or identify him.

 

The FBI lavished huge resources and manpower to flush out the 26-year-old fugitive but came up empty-handed. Finally, after several years of investigations, he was tracked to Thailand. The Feds then asked for help from the Thai police."

 

Two years of operation yet several years of investigation.

 

 

Must have been one of those preemptive deals.

3 hours ago, Bob12345 said:

Why Thailand? Why not?

 

Nice food, you can get all luxuries, and if police stops you you just pretend to not speak English and after 10 minutes they will let you go.

Dream on......

A lot of Thai police/authorities won the lottery on this one.  Dead men don't tell lies....how convenient

4 hours ago, alfalfa19 said:

This part is quite interesting, in my opinion:  

 

 

 

The darkweb mastermind was found dead a week later in a cell at the NSB. Police said all evidence pointed to suicide. Authorities then confiscated more than Bt726 million of Cazes’ Thai assets. 

That is interesting considering he had allot of  money to fight his case. I guess  some organized people in his game didn’t like what they see but then it could have bee suicide but I wasn’t there so anything is possible 

 

wow what a story though 

... wait is the one with the bitcoin scam ... sends a email saying they have photos of you wanging off on your computer and will send it your coworkers, it you don't send a bitcoin...

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Authorities then confiscated more than Bt726 million of Cazes’ Thai assets. 

Mmm. Interesting.

Not heard anything about that.

Upcoming auction etc.

Wonder why?