AlphaBay: The Darknet Empire and Operation Bayonet

Between 2014 and 2017, AlphaBay grew into the largest marketplace in dark web history, hosting over 250,000 listings and ten times the daily transaction volume of Silk Road.

The Hotmail Vulnerability

Despite implementing advanced technical features, administrator Alexandre Cazes included his personal Hotmail address (pimp_alex_91@hotmail.com) in welcome email headers during early server configuration, giving investigators an immutable link to his real-world identity.

Operation Bayonet & Aftermath

In July 2017, multinational law enforcement executed Operation Bayonet, seizing servers in Canada and Lithuania simultaneously with Cazes's arrest in Bangkok.