This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemeita Basso. Today, the hunt to bring down the biggest crime lords of the dark web. On the morning of July 5th of 2017, a group of undercover agents were all

posted around a quiet cul-de-sac in the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand.

One of them is pretending to be an electrician working in a wiring box on a telephone pole.

Another is pretending to be a gardener.

Two are pretending to shop for real estate in this house at the end of the street.

That's Andy Greenberg. He's a senior writer for Wired.

There's also a whole team of agents and prosecutors in this war room across the city and the Thai police

headquarters who are watching all of this on a live surveillance feed.

The agents see that the target is in position and they say it's go time like let's let's do this what Andy is

describing here is the end of a massive international sting called Operation

Bayonet it brought down the biggest illegal marketplace on the internet,

the man who was running it, and so many other bad actors. This is a classic follow the money story, but with a twist. How do you follow

cryptocurrency transactions? See all the bad actors on these sites saw

cryptocurrency as the ultimate anonymous handshake.

A digital briefcase at a drop spot.

Untracable.

Now what they weren't counting on was what could happen if someone was methodical enough to pay attention to all of your

transactions, all of your movement, and start to piece together the puzzle of your identity.

Bitcoin is really the opposite of untraceable.

It's extremely traceable and it's kind of like a roadmap to everybody's finances

that ultimately would serve as a kind of trap for people seeking

financial privacy and all sorts of criminals that persisted for years.

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