Mr. Sessions: Good morning.
Thank you all for being here.
I especially want to welcome U.S. Attorney
Phil Talbert from the Eastern District of
California.
He has done great work on this important case.
And another special welcome to Europol Director
Robert Mark Wainwright who traveled here from
the Netherlands to be with us today to participate
in this important case of which various countries
around the world have participated.
Rob, we appreciate you, we have a tremendous
relationship with Europol, we work together
on a daily basis with them, and this is the
kind of activities and investigative work
we must do in this day and age because crime
knows no quarters.
Among other challenges, our great country
is currently in the midst of the deadliest
drug epidemic in our history.
One American now dies of a drug overdose every
11 minutes, and more than 2 million Americans
are addicted to prescription drugs.
And today, some of the most prolific drug
suppliers use what is called the dark web,
which is a collection of hidden websites that
you can only access if you mask your identity
and your location.
And it is called dark, not just because these
sites are intentionally hidden.
It is also dark because what is sold on many
of them: illegal weapons, stolen identities,
child pornography, and large amounts of narcotics.
Today, the Department of Justice announces
the takedown of a dark web market AlphaBay.
This is the largest dark net marketplace takedown
in world history.
An AlphaBay staff member claimed that this
group serviced more than 40,000 illegal vendors,
people who sell illegal products, for more
than 200,000 customers.
By far, most of this activity was in illegal
drugs, pouring fuel on the fire of a national
drug epidemic.
Around the time of the takedown of this site,
there were more than 250,000 listings for
illegal drugs and toxic chemicals on AlphaBay
-- more than two thirds of all listings on
AlphaBay.
As of earlier this year, 122 vendors advertised
fentanyl and 238 advertised heroin and we
know of several Americans who were killed
by drugs on AlphaBay.
One victim was just 18 years old when in February
she overdosed on a powerful synthetic opioid
which she had bought on AlphaBay.
The drug was shipped right to her house through
the mail.
A little more than a week after her death,
a victim in Orange County, Florida died of
an overdose from a drug bought on AlphaBay.
Then there was Grant Seaver.
He was only 13 years of age, and a student
at Treasure Mountain Junior High School, in
Utah -- in Park City, Utah.
When he passed away, after overdosing on a
synthetic opioid that had been purchased by
a classmate on AlphaBay.
The ability of these drugs to so instantaneously
end these promising lives is a reminder to
us of just how incredibly dangerous these
synthetic opioids are -- especially when they
are purchased anonymously from dark places
on the internet.
And this is like one of the most important
criminal investigations of this entire year.
I have no doubt of that.
Make no mistake, the forces of law and justice
face a challenge from criminals and transnational
criminal organizations who think they can
commit their crimes with impunity by going
dark.
This case pursued by dedicated agents and
prosecutors says you are not safe.
You cannot hide.
We will find you, dismantle your organization
and network, and we will prosecute you.
I believe that because of this operation,
the American people are safer.
People around the world are safer -- safer
from the threat of identity fraud and malware
and safer from deadly drugs.
But the Department’s work is not finished.
We will continue to find, arrest, prosecute,
convict, and incarcerate criminals, drug traffickers,
and their enablers, wherever they are.
The dark net is not a place to hide.
We will use every tool we have to stop criminals
from exploiting vulnerable people and sending
so many Americans to an early grave, perpetuated
by a perverted technology.
I want to thank our international partners
at Europol and in Thailand, the Netherlands,
Lithuania, Canada, the United Kingdom, France,
and Germany, all of whom have worked closely
with us to take down this criminal enterprise.
And to all the Department of Justice law enforcement
personnel at the Drug Enforcement Administration,
the FBI, and to those at the IRS, criminal
investigators, and the attorneys and staff,
all of whom worked tirelessly on this case.
You have made us proud.
You have made this country safer, and we thank
you very very much.
Mr. Rosenstein: Thank you, Attorney General
Sessions.
Good morning and thank you for being here.
I'm grateful to our law enforcement agents
and prosecutors for their tireless work on
this case and to our international partners
for their extraordinary cooperation.
The AlphaBay case is part of a larger international
effort to attack dark web marketplaces that
broker criminal transactions.
Their alleged criminal conduct includes selling
illegal drugs like fentanyl and heroin, as
well as stolen fraudulent identification documents
and access devices, counterfeit goods, malware
and computer hacking tools, firearms, and
toxic chemicals.
This was a coordinated international operation
against AlphaBay and also another website
known as Hansa Market, which the Dutch authorities
have been investigating and shut down earlier
today.
As part of this operation, the two sites’
administrators were arrested and authorities
seized extensive evidence and illicit assets
related to those enterprises.
Now, this case started with several independent
investigations and we had the assistance of
our law enforcement agencies who are represented
here, as well as several U.S. Attorney’s
offices around the country.
We join together in working with our partners
to coordinate the timing of the takedown of
these websites.
The AlphaBay takedown and arrest of its administrator
could not have happened without the unwavering
support of our international partners.
I think that is one of the highlights of this
case today.
We worked with law enforcement authorities
in Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada,
the United Kingdom, and France, along with
support from Europol.
We are going hear from the Europol director,
Rob Wainwright, this morning.
Our foreign partners conducted searches, seized
evidence and proceeds from criminal activities,
and made an arrest.
Now there were many moving parts to this investigation.
Alleged members of the conspiracy used anonymizing
techniques trying to conceal their identities
and their locations.
Peeling back one layer after another took
us to new countries where we needed additional
assistance from other law enforcement agencies.
And with each development in the case, our
international colleagues expressed an immediate
willingness to assist.
Dark websites like AlphaBay and Hansa run
on what is known as the Tor network.
Their hidden services designed to conceal
information that could reveal the identity
and location of a website and its customers.
People using these websites believe that they’re
going to be anonymous, but this case demonstrates
that is not always true.
Many dark websites openly trade in narcotics,
guns, images of sexual abuse of children,
and other serious criminal conduct.
An academic study published in 2015 found
that the largest single category of hidden
services on the Tor network was forums for
the sale of drugs and contraband.
It also found 80% of traffic to hidden services
related to sexual exploitation of children.
Now some sites have membership of hundreds
of thousands of users across the globe.
Those disturbing statistics explain why disrupting
and dismantling dark websites is a priority
for the Department of Justice and international
coordination is critical to our success.
Administrators and users of dark websites
use anonymizing techniques to thwart law enforcement
activities.
But our agents, our prosecutors, analysts,
and support staff worked tirelessly to locate
the infrastructure hosting the sites and to
identify the people responsible for them.
These methods prove an ongoing challenge for
us.
Hundreds of sites on the Tor network still
enable a vast amount of criminal activity
to occur but we are proud of the accomplishments
that we announced today and recognize our
work is not done.
We face many challenges and we need international
assistance to overcome those challenges.
Exceptional foreign cooperation with our operation
to attack illegal activity on the dark web
demonstrates that international partners stand
in solidarity with us to deny safe havens
and cybercrime.
That helps us to protect the privacy, the
safety, and the security of all Americans.
One other development I want to bring to your
attention, which is that following the death
of the defendant who is charged in the American
case, our U.S. Attorney in Eastern California,
Phil Talbert, yesterday filed a civil forfeiture
complaint which will ensure that appropriate
action is taken with regard to all the assets
that were seized in the course of that investigation.
This time I want to introduce the acting director
of the FBI, Andrew McCabe.
Mccabe: Good morning, everyone.
As the Attorney General noted, this is a landmark
operation.
AlphaBay was roughly 10 times the size of
the Silk Road, we’re talking about multiple
servers, different countries, hundreds of
millions of dollars in crypto currency, in
a dark net drug trade that span the globe.
It takes a whole lot of coordination and a
shared purpose to pull off an operation like
this, so with your patience, I’d like to
thank a few of the folks without whom we would
not be here today.
First, I'd like to thank the FBI’s Sacramento
field office who took the laboring or in making
this operation a success.
I'd also like to thank our folks in the Atlanta,
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Chicago field
offices, as well as the FBI's criminal investigative
division here at headquarters, cyber division,
and our legal attaché offices overseas.
These teams did amazing work but we are under
no illusion that we do this type of work on
our own.
We are extremely grateful to our partners
in Thailand, in the Netherlands, Lithuania,
Canada, the U.K., France, as well as our partners
at Europol.
We especially want to thank our Dutch partners
for their amazing work in taking down the
Hansa website to which many of the AlphaBay
users and vendors flocked after the demise
of AlphaBay.
Taking down two major dark net sites at once
is considerable and it took a lot of effort,
a lot of expertise, and a lot of teamwork.
And as this level of teamwork and coordination
shows, we will go to the ends of the earth
to find these people and to stop them.
There are some criminals that think of cybercrime
as a freebie.
They think they will get away with it because
there are too many players and too many countries.
They think they will get away with it because
the schemes are too complex and because they
operate in the shadows.
But we are blending traditional investigative
techniques and new tools to bring these individuals
out of the shadows and into the light.
The FBI’s high-tech organized crime unit
targets criminal enterprises that conduct
traditional criminal activity like money laundering
and the sale of illicit goods through computers
and the Internet.
Together with folks from the cyber division,
violent crime, and crimes against children
programs, we are working to fill that gap
– the gap between computer intrusions that
target our data and technology, and traditional
crimes facilitated by technology, like the
dark net.
This team worked diligently to identify the
location of the AlphaBay infrastructure and
to identify the administrator, and to shut
down the site for good.
Critics will say as we shutter one side, another
site emerges.
And they may be right.
But that is the nature of criminal work.
It never goes away, you have to constantly
keep at it, and you have gotta use every tool
in your toolbox.
And that is exactly what we will do.
We have learned a lot over the years about
taking down international criminal syndicates,
and that same experience applies to organizations
that are facilitated on the dark net.
We know that removing top criminals from the
infrastructure is not a long-term fix.
There is always a new player waiting in the
wings ready to fill those shoes.
It is like demolishing a building.
Hacking away at individual walls and beams
only does so much when using federal statutes
to prosecute these individuals is akin to
blowing up the foundation with dynamite.
Once the infrastructure implodes, it becomes
difficult for the group to function.
The weight of this kind of operation, the
organization crumbles.
So we will keep doing this great work and
we will continue to count on our federal counterparts
and international partners to be right here
with us.
Now I’d like to turn it over to one of our
absolute closest partners and best colleagues
from the Drug Enforcement Administration,
Robert Pattison, Acting Deputy Administrator..
Pattison: Good morning.
I am pleased to represent the DEA and join
my other federal law enforcement colleagues
in announcing the AlphaBay network takedown.
Extremely dedicated investigators, analysts,
and prosecutors worked to make this possible.
I greatly appreciate the larger collaborative
efforts of all of our other federal partners
including the FBI, the IRS, the United States
Postal Inspection Service, and Homeland Security.
As Director McCabe just noted, these cases
demand international collaboration and cooperation.
We are grateful for the work of our federal,
fellow law enforcement partners in Thailand,
the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, United
Kingdom, France, and obviously Europol.
We are all sadly reminded on a daily basis,
our nation continues to face an opioid epidemic.
The dark web is an available and seemingly
anonymous marketplace for the sale of these
drugs.
The DEA continues to be fully committed to
addressing this epidemic.
We are attacking the problem from multiple
angles.
From the traditional enforcement efforts targeting
the major sources outside our borders that
feel untouchable to their networks that bring
the drugs across our borders into this country,
to the violent street gangs that sell the
deadly poison in our local neighborhoods,
and to the corrupt doctors in rogue pharmacies
involved in the diversion of prescription
drugs.
Although the business models of these groups
vary, they are similar when it comes to the
destruction they cause.
They all share one additional common characteristic.
They operate on borrowed time.
The AlphaBay criminal network, lead by Alexander
Cazes, was yet another contributing source
feeding this epidemic, supplying countless
addicts through direct sales and supplying
drug traffickers across this country and others
with larger quantities for redistribution.
AlphaBay was the largest dark market platform
operating on the dark web, and it was responsible
for approximately $1 billion in illicit sales.
A significant portion which came as the result,
as already stated, of proceeds from the sale
of drugs like fentanyl and heroin.
As the attorney general brought up, more than
250,000 listings for illegal drugs were on
that site at the time it was taken down.
The dark web seemingly allows for anonymity
and creates extraordinary challenges for law
enforcement.
But as we have demonstrated in this case,
these challenges are not insurmountable.
Alexander Cazes learned what so many others
have.
Hard work and determination by our law enforcement
and law enforcement partners demonstrate yet
again no one is untouchable.
Collectively, we will continue to leverage
our legal authorities and capabilities with
continued determination to identify and target
criminals wherever they may hide, which includes
cyberspace.
We are keenly aware there will be another
AlphaBay.
But with each investigation we learn more
and get better.
We will aggressively continue to pursue these
attempting to hide behind the anonymity of
the dark web.
I would like to specifically thank the dedicated
men and women of the DEA and our partner law
enforcement agencies for their incredible
work on this particular operation.
And to the many federal prosecutors that work
tirelessly every day to bring these criminals
to justice to protect our citizens.
And with that, I’d like to introduce the
Europol director, Rob Mark Wainwright.
>> Thank you very much and I’m the final
speaker, so we will hold your attention just
for a few minutes more if I may.
Thank you to the attorney general, and colleagues
of the DOJ for inviting me to be a part of
this event today.
We are very pleased at Europol to have played
our part in coordinating the international
dimensions of this groundbreaking operation,
especially in Europe.
As you have heard, this outstanding law enforcement
action here in the United States to bring
to an end AlphaBay was coordinated with simultaneous
action in Europe, against another major criminal
marketplace, the Hansa Market.
The shutting down of that, the Dutch authorities
are announcing right now in the Netherlands
at their own press conference.
These two cases have been developed together
and our joint hit on both of these dark marketplaces
is one of the most sophisticated law enforcement
operations against cybercrime that we have
ever seen.
So the scale speaks for itself, you have heard
the figures already.
AlphaBay and the Hansa market between them
were two of the top three criminal marketplaces
on the dark web.
Trading hundreds of thousands of illicit commodities,
drugs, and many others, the details of which
you have already heard about.
That is 40,000 vendors depending on the marketplace
to sell everything from fentanyl to legal
firearms and malware for cybercrime attacks.
So they coordinate a takedown as I think punched
a big hole in the operating ability of drug
traffickers and other serious criminals around
the world.
But what made this operation really special
was the strategy we ran to magnify the disruptive
impact of the joint actions.
Between Europol, the FBI, DEA, and the Dutch
police, the team play that we ran here was
to take over control of the Hansa market under
Dutch judicial authority a month ago, which
allowed us to monitor the activities, criminal
activities of users, without their knowledge,
and then shut down AlphaBay during the same
period.
What this meant, in particular, was that we
could identify and disrupt the regular criminal
activity that was happening on Hansa market
but then also sweep up all of those new users
that were displaced from AlphaBay and looking
for a new trading platform for their criminal
activities.
In fact, they flocked to Hansa in droves.
We recorded an eight times increase in the
number of new users on Hansa immediately following
the takedown of AlphaBay.
And since the undercover operation to take
over Hansa Market by the Dutch police, the
usernames and passwords of thousands of buyers
and sellers of illicit commodities have been
identified and are the subject of follow-up
investigations by Europol and our partner
agencies.
So as a law enforcement strategy, therefore,
leveraging the combined operational and technical
capabilities of multiple agencies here in
the U.S. and around Europe has been an extraordinary
success.
An illustration of the collective power we
can bring as a concerted global law enforcement
community to work against even the most challenging
serious criminal enterprises.
My respect and admiration goes to all those
involved here in the U.S., in the Netherlands,
many other European countries, as well as
many of my own colleagues in Europol.
I think there are three other major implications
in this operation.
Firstly, as you’ve heard, the infrastructure
of the underground criminal economy has taken
a serious hit.
A much much bigger even than what we saw in
2013 with Silk Road.
Secondly, the intelligence that we have yielded
especially through the monitoring of Hansa
has given us a new insight into the criminal
activity of the dark net, including many of
its leading figures.
We have already distributed through Europol
new intelligence leads connected to dark net
to already 37 countries around the world.
And finally, of course, as you have already
heard, there is a very strong message here.
To those who engage in criminal activity on
the Internet and the dark net especially,
you are not as safe and anonymous as you think
you are.
This operation is an example of the improving
concerted ability of law enforcement to strike
against criminals, even on the dark net.
At Europol's we’re setting up a new international
team to monitor dark net marketplaces in the
future.
And what we have seen today from this coordinated
hit against these two marketplaces is just
a taste of what is to come in the future.
Thank you.
>> Attorney General Sessions, this is not
really a normal day.
The president made very disparaging remarks
about you, Attorney General of the United
States, and the Deputy Attorney General yesterday.
Given what he said, what is your reaction
to those remarks, and how seriously are you
considering possibly resigning?
Mr. Sessions: We in this Department of Justice
will continue every single day to work hard
to serve the national interest and we wholeheartedly
join in the priorities that President Trump
-- he gave us several directives.
One is to dismantle internet transnational
criminal organizations.
That is what we are announcing today.
Dismantling of the largest dark website in
the world by far.
I congratulate our people for that.
I have the honor of serving as Attorney General.
It is something that goes beyond any thought
I would have ever had for myself.
We love this job.
We love this Department.
And I plan to continue to do so as long as
that is appropriate.
>> Attorney General Sessions, how do you feel
like you can effectively serve from here on
out, if you don't have the confidence of the
president?
Mr. Sessions: We are serving right now.
The work we are doing today is the kind of
work that we intend to continue.
Just last week, we announced the largest health
care takedown ever in the United States.
We had all the major law enforcement leaders
in my office yesterday to talk about unified
efforts to improve crime-fighting with state
and local officials.
So I am totally confident that we can continue
to run this office in an effective way.
But I would really like for you to focus now
on the work of the individuals behind me,
that have helped put this case together, so
that we can celebrate and affirm the work
that they have done, so that we can learn
from it, and get even better in the future.
>> Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, the
president told New York Times yesterday that
the fact that you are from Baltimore concerns
him since there aren’t many Republicans
from that city.
Is that something that is a valid concern
in your view, what do you make of that?
Mr. Rosenstein: As the Attorney General said,
we are working every day to advance the priorities
of the Department of Justice and the administration.
I was proud to be here yesterday, I’m proud
to be here today, and I’ll be proud to work
here tomorrow.
We are spending every minute working to advance
the interest of the Department.
As the Attorney General said, we are happy
to answer any questions about this AlphaBay
case.
It’s a very important case.
We have got a lot of folks here that assisted
in the investigation.
And that is all I am going to talk about today.
>> Any questions about AlphaBay?
Alright, thank you.
>> Are you concerned you will be seen as a
zombie Attorney General?
