Operators of the ‘Legalizer’ Drugs Webstore Exposed by Anonymous Hacker

• Someone has leaked the identification details of high-ranking operators of the ‘Legalizer’ site.
• The anonymous hacker has also exposed conversations, images, document scans, and more.
• The exposure appears to be real, but it hasn’t been confirmed with certainty yet.

Someone claims to have hacked ‘Legalizer,’ one of the most popular drug markets in the Russian parts of the dark web, exposing very revealing info about the identity of the people who allegedly hide behind the site. The hacker has posted several samples of internal communication as well as correspondence with “clients,” images of the ‘Legalizer’ operators, the substance abuse problems plaguing some of the moderators, and various other “juicy” details. Of course, the anonymous hacker hasn’t failed to include site server IP addresses as well.

The owner and main developer of ‘Legalizer’ is a 33-year-old Latvian who lives in Jūrmala. The “number two” is a 37-years-old Czech individual who lives in Moscow and who is presented as an ex-admin and ex-developer, no longer associated with the site. The current admin is presented as someone with the nickname ‘OldSchool Bro,’ a 32-year-old Ukrainian.

The hacker has posted names, ID and passport numbers, telephone numbers, and various other sensitive details. Still, as TechNadu cannot confirm the validity of this information, we won’t reproduce it here. If you want to see the details, you can check out the hacker’s full leak page.

The leaker goes on to unveil that the owner of ‘Legalizer’ operates offices as a cover for his illegal activities and even uses the server of one of the “legal” sites as a place to store a full backup of the ‘Legalizer’ forum. As the hacker further details, the site's admins weren’t careful with security, and they actually never reset their passwords since the creation of their accounts. Moreover, ‘OldSchool Bro’ has even reused the email address he had on the drugs site for his administration account on a clearnet dating site.

From what we were able to evaluate using KELA’s cyber-intelligence tools, it appears that the hack is real and that the exposed individuals have been shaken by the development. Instead of disregarding the revelations, they are actually pointing the finger at each other over who is the owner of the illegal site. Also, there are mocking posts on Russian dark web forums, calling ‘Legalizer’ a joke of a drugs site while commenting on this development as something that was to be expected.

This revelation and the way it comes reminds us of the Hydra market exposure from back in February, which was partially confirmed by researchers at Gemini Advisory. As such, the ostensible validity of this leak is high, but we’ll have to wait for some crosschecks before we can speak with certainty.