He was particularly prominent in the underground carding community where claims about him being a different person from alpha02 emerged.ĭebate concerning the truth about DeSnake’s real identity is well reflected in a 2016 episode where a disgruntled AlphaBay user known as “Kinger” said that alpha02 had made his exit from the market in late 2015, sold his stake to DeSnake, and that DeSnake was serving as an admin for the remaining two years of its lifetime.Īccording to past media reports, the threats posed by “Kinger” were viewable on the now-defunct AlphaBay subreddit under the topic “the real reason why AlphaBay is down”. The charges included accusations of racketeering and helping to run an illicit marketplace on the dark web.Įven before running the highly successful AlphaBay market, Cazes was considered to be an experienced darknet operator with vast experience across underground communities. Not too long ago, A California court sentenced Brian Herell, a Colorado man identified as one of AlphaBay’s moderators going by the moniker Botah to 11 years in prison. According to findings made by a host of darknet analysts, DeSnake may have had links to Russia although it appears that his true identity was not necessarily Russian. The now-deceased Cazes did not operate AlphaBay singlehandedly, but formed part of a team that included a “security administrator” going by the alias DeSnake. Now, barely five years since closure of the first AlphaBay market, the darknet platform is back in business but lots of questions remain about the legitimacy of the new version of the market – some dark web analysts and communities seem skeptical about the true intentions of its return. Recent memory serves that the admin died under disputed circumstances as the police claimed that he committed suicide – the larger dark web community, however, believe that this was a case of extrajudicial killing to date. The investigations culminated in the arrest of AlphaBay founder Alexandre Cazes who was identified as the administrator of the marketplace. It turns out that a multi-stakeholder team of law enforcement agencies had infiltrated AlphaBay and harvested plenty of evidence against the site owners and users. Soon after, news about a global police operation targeting the most prolific dark web market of its time emerged. The buyers and vendors on the underground platform were not sure about whether that the site had been seized by law enforcement or pulled an exit scam on everyone. Sometime in July 2017, AlphaBay, the world’s biggest darknet marketplace, closed down abruptly under unclear circumstances.

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