The Italian Police has arrested a man who they said hired a hit-man on the dark web to assault his ex-girlfriend.
A foreign law enforcement agency informed the Italian police about the suspect. The suspect is a 40 year old IT expert from the town of Lombardy. The foreign law enforcement agency were investigating an undisclosed target when they uncovered the plot.
In a similar cases, a researcher who had backdoor access to a darkweb murder for hire sites identified targets of an assassination plot and relayed the information to the police. It is possible that this method also led to the identification of the 40 year old man in this case.
Interpol was informed of the plot when The European law enforcement agency contacted them. Interpol contacted the Italian State Police and notified them. The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rome launched an investigation. Interpol “assisted” Italian police during the case.
How Italian Police found the suspect
Blockchain analysis made identifying the suspect very easy. Investigators were able to connect a payment on the (fraudulent) murder-for-hire site to the suspect. The suspect sent the site operator €10 000 in Bitcoin. The transaction was traced to a cryptocurrency exchange. The exchange had all information relating to the suspect on file. This lead to the arrest of the suspect.