Darknet Investigation — Law Enforcement
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Project Overview
An international law enforcement effort (confidential) brought me in to support a multi-jurisdictional darknet investigation into an organized criminal operation. My mandate was to combine open-source intelligence, sustained darknet monitoring and blockchain forensics to attribute activity, trace illicit funds, and package everything as evidence that would survive scrutiny in court. I tracked the target across hidden services and clear-web footholds, followed the money through Bitcoin, Monero and Ethereum flows despite deliberate obfuscation, and imaged seized systems under a documented chain of custody. Working alongside investigators across several agencies, I delivered attribution leads and a court-admissible evidence package that held up to both legal and technical review.
Challenges
- Attribute anonymous darknet activity to real identities across multiple legal jurisdictions.
- Cut through obfuscation from mixers, tumblers and privacy coins built to break the money trail.
- Capture volatile, perishable evidence before hidden services and infrastructure disappeared.
- Meet strict legal admissibility standards and maintain an unbroken chain of custody throughout.
- Preserve operational security so a watchful, technically capable target was never tipped off.
Approach
- Ran structured OSINT and sustained darknet surveillance to map the target's infrastructure and personas.
- Performed blockchain analysis and wallet clustering to trace funds across BTC, XMR and ETH.
- Imaged and forensically examined systems and data under a fully documented chain of custody.
- Coordinated findings and de-conflicted activity across the participating agencies and jurisdictions.
- Produced clear expert reporting written to be understood and defended in a court of law.