The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court extended the detention of two suspects, a 35-year-old Tel Aviv resident and a 34-year-old Ashdod resident, who were arrested and brought for interrogation in the cyber unit in the Tel Aviv District. The Deepdotweb site, which refers to dark internet sites, has been investigated in the past few months by the FBI, with the assistance of the cyber unit of the Tel Aviv District Police, and has become apparent when suspects have been arrested in several countries around the world.

As reported, the dark network is private and anonymous and surfing is made possible by software. Because of its nature, the network is the focus of illegal activities such as drug trafficking, obscene materials, weapons and the hiring of criminal services.

According to the suspicions, the website owner contained references to illegal sales sites in the dark network, thus using the “affiliate marketing” method and profiting from every sale made through them, which led to profits of millions of dollars. Payment for the completed transactions was transferred to the suspects via digital currency “Bitcoin”.

On Monday, May 6, 2019, as the investigation went into the open stage, investigators and police detectives armed with search warrants raided the suspects’ houses and made the arrests. Searches were conducted at hosting companies.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)