The dark web is all about a black and risky world and many predators and crimes happen here. In this post, we will explore the 5 most notorious criminals of the dark web with their thrilling and fascinating stories.
5 Most Notorious Criminals of the Dark Web
1: Petter Scully
Peter Gerard Scully is known as one the most notorious criminals of the dark web. Along with his girlfriend Lovely Margallo and their two partners, Alexander Lao and Maria Durotiya Chia, he held and abused children in the city of Cagayan de Oro from 2011 to 2014. The victims included teenage girls, children, and toddlers. Moreover, Peter videoed the girls from poor families as he sexually abused, tortured and raped them. He uploads the child sexual abuse videos on a dark web porn website called “No Limits Fun” and sells them for up to $10,000 per view.
However, was sentenced to life in prison in June 2018 and an additional 129 years in 2022 jail in the Philippines, being charged with 60 different offenses. The charges include torture, murder, child abuse, human trafficking, child pornography, and rape.
2: Ross Ulbricht
Ross Ulbricht one of the most notorious criminals of the dark web network, known as Dread Pirate Roberts. He created the infamous dark web market Silk Road. This market is famous for buying and selling Drugs, guns, or other illegal products using Bitcoin BTC for payments and the Tor network for anonymity. Predictably, more than $1 billion value of illegal drugs were traded on the Silk Road.
However, this market is now shut down and Ross has been in custody since 2013 through investigative techniques and operational security mistakes on his part. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after find guilty on charges of money laundering, and drug trafficking, and a plan to traffic fake IDs.
3: Joshua Schulte
Joshua Schulte is an ex-CIA worker who has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for charges of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and possession of child abuse images. He shared some 8,761 documents to whistle-blowing platform Wikileaks in 2017, amounting to the largest data breach in the history of the CIA. He also leaked the CIA’s “Vault 7” tools, which let intelligence officers hack phones and use them as hearing devices.
Moreover, in a search of his apartment, prosecutors found tens of thousands of images of child sexual abuse materials. Well, it was not the end of crimes, Schulte smuggled a phone into jail where he tried to send a reporter data about CIA cyber groups. He drafted tweets that included data about CIA cyber tools under the name Jason Bourne, an illusory intelligence operative.
4: Vincent Ramos
Vincent Ramos one of the most notorious criminals of the dark web is a cyber genius who ran the Phantom Secure company selling custom, modified BlackBerry mobile phones. These phones run an encrypted network that allows its devices to send and receive encrypted messages. These phones were used by criminal organizations to distribute cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines globally, including the United States, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Thailand, and Europe. His customers included the Sinaloa drug cartel of Mexico and the Hells Angels in Australia.
However, Vincent Ramos was arrested in February 2018 and was sentenced to nine years in prison losing USD80 million as profits of crime, and seized various assets. US authorities estimated that Phantom Secure produced tens of millions of dollars in profits through its services. They alleged that Phantom Secure laundered the proceeds of its devices and services sales through several shell companies and used Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to launder its earnings.
5: Lauri Love
Another most notorious Criminals of the dark web network is Lauri Love a British man accused of hacking dozens of US Govt sites including the Federal Reserve, NASA, and the US Army. He also stole the personal details of a lot of employees and defaced numerous websites. Officers who raided his house in Suffolk seized computer equipment including a total of 29 iPads, laptops, and hard drives after a five-hour search. The police took Lauri to the local police station. He faces a 99-year prison sentence if extradited to the United States and fines of $9 million.
But Lauri Love has been diagnosed with severe depression, Asperger’s syndrome, and drug-resistant eczema, and his defense lawyers successfully argued his health would worsen if sent to the U.S. and put in the hands of its jail system. Now he is completing the penalty in the jail of UK.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few examples of notorious criminals of the dark web. If you ever find yourself on the dark web, so be sure to stay safe as you could be putting yourself in danger by communicating with criminals.