One study, at least, suggested that the AlphaBay and Hansa busts had lasting effects. The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, which goes by the acronym TNO, found that together the results of that combined takeover-takedown were different from previous dark web busts. When other markets had been seized, like the Silk Road or Silk Road 2, most of their drug vendors soon showed up again on other dark web drug sites. But the TNO study found that vendors who fled Hansa didn’t reappear, or if they did, they had been forced to scrub their identities and reputations, re-creating
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