Dutch police launch a second investigation into dark web murder-for-hire orders targeting ordinary citizens, following earlier findings.
Dutch police have opened a second criminal investigation into murder-for-hire orders placed via the dark web, expanding an earlier probe in Rotterdam to include a separate suspected murder order in the eastern Netherlands. In both cases, the intended targets are ordinary citizens, police said.
The new investigation follows revelations earlier this year by RTL Nieuws that at least seven murder orders involving Dutch targets were placed on a website claiming to arrange contract killings in exchange for cryptocurrency. Police confirmed that, in addition to the ongoing case in Rotterdam, officers are now actively searching for the person who ordered a killing in the eastern part of the country.
According to RTL, the site contains names, photographs and home addresses of Dutch citizens, accompanied by explicit instructions. Messages include statements such as: “I want you to burn him alive so that he does not survive,” and, “I don’t want the child to be present when she is shot.”
Although the website is in fact a scam and no killings have been carried out, placing such orders is still a criminal offense. In 2021, a man from The Hague was sentenced to eight years in prison for incitement to murder after ordering the killing of his ex-wife through the same site.
“This is about ordering a murder,” said Jop Heinen of police Oost-Nederland. “That is an offense that can carry a substantial prison sentence. We are really doing our best to solve this case. We see leads.”
RTL reported in July that the website — operating on the dark web, an encrypted part of the internet — listed at least seven Dutch murder requests. The intended victims include a teacher, a nurse and a civil servant. The site remains active.
British hacker Chris Monteiro repeatedly breached the website and gained access to hundreds of detailed murder orders from around the world. Through Monteiro, RTL obtained all Dutch cases earlier this year. The material includes seven concrete Dutch cases, four of which involved advance payments totaling thousands of euros.
All four paid Dutch cases have been examined by police. Two investigations are currently ongoing, including the Rotterdam case and the newly opened probe in the eastern Netherlands. The case from The Hague resulted in a conviction in 2021. A fourth case, from Breda, has been investigated and closed.
One intended victim, identified as Jerom to protect his identity, was informed earlier this year by police Rotterdam-Rijnmond that a murder had been ordered against him. He said the prolonged uncertainty has taken a heavy toll.
“My life is on hold,” Jerom said. “You are, as it were, taken hostage by the whole situation. You do your job, but with little social interaction. A bit like a hermit.”
He said the brutality of the instructions continues to haunt him. “The instruction was to cut off my limbs, set me on fire and things like that. That is very macabre. It keeps running through my head how someone can cultivate so much hatred to wish such an end on me.”
Jerom remains constantly alert in his neighborhood. “It’s a quiet area, but if someone is standing outside with headlights on, I think: who is that?” He urged police to continue the investigation. “It’s important that they keep digging. Such a macabre act cannot go unpunished. You can’t get away with this. That’s not possible. It’s injustice.”
Police acknowledge the difficulty of solving the cases, many of which date back several years. “It is a complex operation to trace who made such a bitcoin payment,” Heinen said. Police in Rotterdam also said the digital nature of the cases means the investigations take a long time.
The website, previously known under names including “Colombian Hitmen” and “Besa Mafia,” claims to be able to carry out killings anywhere in the world for sufficient bitcoin payments. In reality, police and journalists say, it primarily attracts people with relationship-related grievances.
The site remains online. Its anonymous administrator denied that users are being defrauded. “Our website is real,” the administrator told RTL. “We can easily prove that we kill people if you give us an order to kill someone. But you, the RTL journalists, are certainly not going to do that, right?”
Reports are sourced from official documents, law-enforcement updates, and credible investigations.
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