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Operation Bayonet

June 2017, Darknet market

Verified core entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

Umbrella campaign. This entry groups 2 recorded actions. Infrastructure, people, and sources sit on each wave rather than on this entry, so read the waves for what was taken down and who was held to account.

Wave Date Lead Outcome
Hansa covert takeover and shutdown June 20 to July 20, 2017 Dutch National Police Full covert takeover of the marketplace; servers seized in the Netherlands, Germany, and Lithuania; user credentials and transaction data collected; site replaced with seizure notice.
AlphaBay seizure July 4 to July 5, 2017 FBI and DEA Marketplace servers and hidden service seized; site taken offline; assets and cryptocurrency frozen in multiple jurisdictions.

Joint US and Dutch campaign that seized AlphaBay and simultaneously ran Hansa covertly to capture migrating users.[1]

Announced July 20, 2017.

Date
June 20 to July 20, 2017
Target
AlphaBay and Hansa, campaign
Activity
Darknet market
Operational lead
Not established
Jurisdiction
United States, Netherlands, Thailand, Lithuania, Germany, and Canada
Outcome
See child incidents.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
See child incidents.
Group accounted for
Not applicable

No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.

Group accounted for: Not applicable

Campaign-level record. See child incidents.

Not applicable at campaign level.

See child incidents.[1]

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

Return class G. The class is a research grading carried in the source dataset and its scale is not published, so this page relies on the relationship and confidence values instead. How this index handles it.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Massive blow to criminal dark web activities after globally coordinated operation

    Europol, July 20, 2017, Source grade P2

    Joint AlphaBay and Hansa operation structure and coordination roles

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note. Excluded from incident totals. Children: td_2017_alphabay, td_2017_hansa.