Over the past few days, I’ve been asked by many people what I think about reports that Serbian police arrested a member of TheDarkOverlord. Some journalists seem to be going even further and reporting that multiple arrests have been made.
I’ve said repeatedly and will repeat it here: I don’t know who did get arrested, but I do not believe reports and rumors by others suggesting that all operators have been arrested. And there is no way I will believe that Grant West (“Courvoisier”) was/is any core part of TDO (or any part at all, for that matter) unless I see a lot of proof. The idea of TDO putting a red laptop on a shelf in a train? Absurd. TDO spending a ton of money on a Las Vegas trip? Equally absurd, I think. Yes, Nathan Wyatt (“Crafty Cockney”) was affiliated with them, but I knew what he did for them and reported on him in the past.
So who was arrested in Serbia, and what, if anything, was/is his connection to TheDarkOverlord? Why hasn’t the FBI issued a press release?
But here’s the thing that makes me wonder whether they have been compromised: I do not know why TDO would email Joe Cox and Jeremy Kirk that they’re still standing but never get in touch with this site. Have they lost control of the account they used to contact this site? Or are they impostors who are afraid I would spot them as impostors? Could law enforcement be tweeting and sending their recent tweets and emails?
The writing of the tweets certainly looks like TDO’s, but it would be nice to see TDO actually authenticate themselves to me. There are non-public facts they should know that they can use to authenticate themselves if they want to. If they don’t want to, that’s their right, of course, but it’s puzzling that they wouldn’t contact this site, when it’s been this site that has published proof when they wanted proof published.