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# Operation Bayonet

June 2017, Darknet market

Source linked. Verified 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.

## Waves in this campaign

| Wave | Date | Lead | Outcome |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Hansa covert takeover and shutdown](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/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](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/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. |

## What happened

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

## People and accountability

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.

## What happened afterward

See child incidents.[[1]](#source-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](https://takedownindex.org/about).

## Sources

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

### What each part of this entry rests on

The audit recorded which sources carry which part of the record. These are those sources.

- Identity, dates and counts, [[1]](#source-1) [Massive blow to criminal dark web activities after globally coordinated operation](https://takedownindex.org/sources/europol-massive-blow-to-criminal-dark-web-activities-after-globally-coordinated-)

### Official sources

1.
[Massive blow to criminal dark web activities after globally coordinated operation](https://takedownindex.org/sources/europol-massive-blow-to-criminal-dark-web-activities-after-globally-coordinated-)

Europol, July 20, 2017, Source grade P2

Joint AlphaBay and Hansa operation structure and coordination roles

[Open source](https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/massive-blow-to-criminal-dark-web-activities-after-globally-coordinated-operation)

Coverage note. Excluded from incident totals. Children: td\_2017\_alphabay, td\_2017\_hansa.

Research context

## How this entry was checked

Source linked

Every claim in this entry traces to a source the audit opened and read. Nothing on the record needed changing.

Verified: August 21, 2026

Sources cited: 1

Research cutoff: August 21, 2026

Limitations recorded against this entry

- Campaign-level record; personnel and legal outcomes belong to child incidents and are not independently counted here.

See also

[About the Internet Takedown Index](https://takedownindex.org/about)

Related entries

- [Hansa covert takeover and shutdown](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/hansa-covert-takeover-and-shutdown)
- [AlphaBay seizure](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/alphabay-seizure)
- [Wall Street Market / Silkkitie (Valhalla) shutdown](https://takedownindex.org/takedowns/wall-street-market-silkkitie-valhalla-shutdown)

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