But in October 2023, all those promises of anonymity came undone as the Dutch police seized DNMX servers and began rummaging through users’ emails. At the time, cops believed DNMX was being used for the trade of child sex abuse material, terrorist communications and narcotics trafficking. The Dutch national police declined to comment further on the seizure, other than to tell Forbes there was an investigation. “We will do no further notices about the investigation,” said Netherlands Police spokesperson Thérèse Ariaans.

She declined to comment on whether or not the police let the service continue running to ensnare more criminals. Although the service is now down, according to the Wayback Machine, the main clearweb (i.e. non darknet) site for DNMX was still active last year. There have also been reports on social media of criminals continuing to message over the platform as recently as late summer 2024.

In recent years, investigators have run communications channels used by criminals, the most notable case being that of Anom, an encrypted app that was controlled by police. More recently, the FBI took over the online profile of a money launderer who went by the name ElonMuskWHM to track his clients, according to 404 Media.

Court documents show some darknet users had fretted that DNMX had been hit by a law enforcement raid in 2023, though no further information was forthcoming. On Reddit, an apparent note from the DNMX administrator from 2023 warned that DNMX email accounts were “no longer in our control.”

Since the previously unreported seizure, Dutch investigators have been sharing their findings with all manner of other agencies, from Europol to American federal departments. In one case, they found a child sexual exploitation enterprise using DNMX that offered to pay people to produce illegal footage. In some cases, the DNMX user, whose illicit business was known as Newstarz, would offer to pay as much as $500,000 for a year’s contract, or up to $50,000 for a series of images around a given narrative. It also offered an “Elite Membership Level” that would provide “sexual access to all models and families at meets,” according to court documents filed by the DOJ.

The DOJ is now prosecuting a former U.S. Marine Corps officer, Jonathan Laroche, for allegedly creating CSAM and selling it to the DNMX user behind Newsta, who remains unknown, according to a search warrant and a criminal complaint. Laroche, a former Navy detective who had been sentenced in a separate case for choking a detained sailor at Naval Base San Diego earlier this year, has not yet filed a plea for a new charge of producing CSAM. Neither his lawyer nor the DOJ had responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

The owner of DNMX may have seen his service get taken down, but he promised in 2023 to offer a new one. “The darknet needs a good email provider and I will bring a new one online soon,” according to the Reddit notice. It’s unclear if that project ever bore fruit.

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