Defunct: DutchMasters

DutchMasters was a dark-net vendor shop operating within The Netherlands and sold a variety of different drugs from 2012 until 2021, when they were arrested by Dutch law enforcement. Prior to their arrests, they were one of the oldest and trusted independent, drug-oriented vendor shops on the dark-net. They primarily sold MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, 2C-B, amphetamines, Mephedrone, and hashish. Their shop was wallet-less and used Bitcoin for purchases. It was estimated that they earned tens of millions euros during their time as a vendor.

Law enforcement began investigating DutchMasters during August of 2019 after noticing that they were one of the largest sellers on the WallStreet Market, which was seized several months earlier in May. The LE investigation was focused on taking down DutchMasters, identifying the people behind the operation, and seizing their criminally earned assets. During their investigation, detectives and cyber specialists from the Dutch national criminal investigation service were able to combine both digital and analogue-based evidence against DutchMasters, which consequently led to raids on 11 different locations in the cities of Amsterdam, Dieman, Amstelveen, Almere and Assendelft, and eventually the arrests of 6 suspects between the ages of 33 and 51. The first raid took place on a vacant home with a reinforced door that was being used to vacuum seal and package drugs, where many large boxes full of drugs were found and MDMA tablets were being packaged in candy boxes and wrapped in foil before being stacked. It was discovered that they had corrupted connections in the shipping industry, which allowed them to export large quantities of drugs without any problems within the country. During the raids, police seized a Porsche, drugs, bundles of cash, jewelry, electronic storage devices and drug manufacturing equipment. In September of 2020, a lab suspected of being connected to DutchMasters was raided, and police discovered a production line for synthetic drugs such as MDMA, and an industrial pill press which had the same shapes as the pills sold by DutchMasters. The industrial pill press, and the fact that DutchMasters stopped selling MDMA after the raid, made it obvious to police that DutchMasters was behind the lab.

The overall take-down of DutchMasters was one of the largest drug busts to have ever taken place in The Netherlands.