Untrue according to the crabs article interview with the woman "Petra Haandrikman, team leader of the Dutch police unit that infiltrated Hansa."

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/07/exclusive-dutch-cops-on-...

"H: Yes, we called them “AlphaBay refugees.” It wasn’t the technical challenge that caused problems. Because this was a police operation, we wanted to keep up with the orders to see if there were any large amounts [of drugs] being ordered to one place, [so that] we could share information with our law enforcement partners internationally."

To me, that sounds like they were looking for resellers more than users

point taken, I had not read it this way originally but your interpretation makes sense

edit: I knew I saw something about this somewhere earlier today. Still, this proves nothing because it's source less.

https://www.politie.nl/en/news/2017/july/20/underground-hans... "Some 10,000 foreign addresses of Hansa Market buyers were passed on to Europol"

For which I expect some of them to be charged with tax fraude or racketeering here in Holland. A lot of financial crimes, especially regarding taxes, are punished heavier than other crimes.

I wonder how cannabis dealers based in Holland would be prosecuted. Doing a quick search shows that cannabis distribution/growing is still illegal under NL law. [1]

I thought this excerpt was interesting:

"The sale of small quantities of cannabis in coffeeshops is therefore technically an offence, but prosecution proceedings are only instituted if the operator or owner of the shop does not meet the criteria issued by the Prosecutor General:

no more than five grams per person may be sold in any one transaction and the coffeeshop is not allowed to keep more than 500 grams of cannabis in stock;

no hard drugs may be sold; drugs may not be advertised; the coffee shop must not cause any nuisance;

they are not allowed to sell alcoholic beverages; no drugs may be sold to minors (under the age of 18), nor may minors be admitted to the premises."

Could an implicated dealer use the legal defense that they were operating a coffee shop online? (Provided that they didn't sell > 5 grams of cannabis)

[1] http://www.emcdda.europa.eu//html.cfm//index5174EN.html?#

No, it doesn't work that way. One of the other criteria for qualifying as a coffeeshop, is that you obtain a permit from the municipality. Some municipalities simply don't allow any coffeeshops. Coffeeshops also have to be physical stores, and may not advertise.

Also, it's also pretty much at the whim of the public prosecutor whether to close coffeeshops for not upholding the unrealistic 500 gram limit (for the amount of shops in densely populated areas other than Amsterdam).