NCIDETF Adds "TheCommission" to Arrested Vendor List

The Northern California Illicit Digital Economy Task Force reportedly arrested TheCommission, a “top-level” vendor of heroin, morphine, cocaine, and other substances on Empire Market.

The Northern California Illicit Digital Economy Task Force (NCIDETF) added another name to their list of arrested darkweb vendors. The list–hosted on the taskforce’s official onion service–was updated to include TheCommission, an opioid and cocaine vendor. With the most recent addition to the list, investigations involving the task force yielded arrests in at least 17 cases.

The list of arrested vendors contains the following names/identities:

• Farmacy41
• sicknessVersion2 a/k/a 23MightyMouse23
• Houseofdank a/k/a BestBuyMeds a/k/a TrapMart
• DankStix
• BudgetBudsExpress
• CokeWave
• SafeDealsDirect
• Cannabars a/k/a thefastplug
• PhantomLabs
• Diablow a/k/a raiseappeals a/k/a RaisedByDiablow
• CaliCartel a/k/a Playground a/k/a GaminoCrimeFamily a/k/a DopeQueen
• DrFrosty
• guessguess
• largomonkey a/k/a sillycoconut
• Super_Shards
• Gemstoned
• TheCommission

It is currently unclear when law enforcement arrested the vendor. Based on the available information, however, it appears as if they picked him up on either June 25 or June 26. On Dread post about the vendor’s arrest, one of TheCommission’s (former) customers wrote, “i have an order that was marked “shipping label created on the 24th.” One day later, TheCommission allegedly advised the customer that the package would arrive on June 26. On June 26, the package status changed to “seized by law enforcement.”

Customers are currently (June 28) finalizing orders and rating the transaction on Empire Market. The vendor also updated their profile twice on June 25.

6/25/20 - 6:00 pm (EST): Cut off closed. All orders after this point ship tomorrow.

6/25/20: How this will work moving forward, is we will accept as many orders as possible each day, before then going on vacation mode. This will ensure all “SDD” packages get dropped the same day and overall swift processing. The store will re-open each day once the last batch has been processed. Thank you!

The vendor account last logged into the marketplace on June 26, 2020, according to the same profile on Empire Market. Law enforcement most likely accessed the account after the arrest on late June 25 or June 26. It appears as if law enforcement had no interest in running an undercover operation with the vendor’s account; they announced the arrest to the world through the NCIDETF’s arrested vendor list.

It appears as if the vendor had an issue involving Wickr on June 18 or June 19. According to an announcement on the vendor’s profile, TheCommison’s “Prior Wickr Account was Compromised.”

One Dread user commented:

The wickr account has been compromised as far back as the 19th at least. No response at all the 18th, then late on the 19th it was active and scamming people. Not sure if that was LE or not. The pack never sent.

The user added that the person in control of the Wickr account on June 19 also had access to the account on Empire. “I told him something during our convo that he posted on his Empire page.” TheCommission never shipped a package ordered on June 19, according to the customer quoted above.

One user wrote that after switching to the new Wickr, TheCommission” respond[ed] to product questions."

But in response to the above comment, another user wrote that he had no issues with TheCommission after switching to the new Wickr account.

A lack of information about an arrested darkweb vendor on the NCIDETF’s list is not unusual though. The task force adds a name to the list and additional details only surface months later once the U.S. Attorney’s Office announces an indictment. An extreme example of this is the DrFrosty case; a year has now passed since the publication of the article about DrFrosty and no additional information (that the general public is aware of) is available.

h/t to /u/GeasyGsteazy on Dread