You can find everything on the Darknet, it is well known.
But confidential information extracted from police files straight out of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) is a little less ordinary.
However, it is indeed a former agent of the DGSI who, under the pseudonym of Haurus, marketed a lot of confidential information on the occult network.
The former police officer is summoned to the criminal court of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) on Tuesday to answer for these hijackings of files, which he has largely recognized.
Also tried for forgery and use of forgery, swindling, putting counterfeit money into circulation, he will appear for four days and incur ten years of imprisonment.
Haurus spent a year in pre-trial detention before being placed under judicial supervision.
He faces a return to prison, at the end of his trial scheduled over four days
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This case, a thunderclap in the temple of intelligence, began in June 2018 with the dismantling of BlackHand, an illegal web-accessible site, which offered to obtain all kinds of prohibited things.
A conversation between the site moderator and a man named Haurus had alerted cyber investigators, the first asking the second for personal information about the administrator of the site whose real identity he wanted to know.
His research would have led to assassinations
Providing such information without access to protected files being inconceivable, said Haurus was either a high-profile hacker or a police officer. The connections to the police files being traceable, the real identity of Haurus eventually appeared and the brigadier, assigned since 2017 to the DGSI, in an anti-terrorism unit, was arrested at his place of work in September 2018.
The investigation revealed a real, diversified commercial activity carried out by Haurus. Via his “shop”, his customers placed orders under a pseudo. Sometimes to get information on prominent personalities. A certain “Bidule7575” thus requested him for research concerning the pro-Brexit Nigel Farage and to know the identity of a woman accusing Tariq Ramadan of rape. There is also the one who wanted to know everything about an imprisoned man.
“Names of visits, visiting room, plus everything possible.
Number where he sleeps, etc.
Or on the prisoner's girlfriend: "Where she lives, everything about this person, the total, kids, children's school, I want everything."
“The investigators went back to this very good client of Haurus, a Marseillais known to rub shoulders with banditry.
Certain searches of Haurus carried out on order of the Marseillais would have led to two assassinations.
For this part of the case, Haurus is indicted in Marseille.
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In addition to personal information, Haurus sold false papers, false registration cards, false checks… Little by little, it extended the range of its services by investing in the manufacturing equipment of all these false documents.
For each service, he was paid 100 to 300 euros, payable in Bitcoins or, more rarely, in cash sent by La Poste.
He would have pocketed nearly 50,000 euros
When his research required more work, he could claim 800 euros.
With Bitcoin payments, the actual amount of the winnings is difficult to determine.
Haurus estimates them at 50,000 euros.
At the end of the investigation, it appears that he carried out "at least 382 illegitimate searches" on the platform for judicial telephone interceptions.
On one of the USB keys seized in search, Haurus had identified 190 orders.
As an organized man, he annotated each order with a "To do" or "done" with the precision of the sale price.
Assisted by Me Yassine Bouzrou, the deposed policeman will not deny his "drift" in court.
"Drift" to which, "neither the hierarchy nor the magistrates working with Haurus have put an end", notes the lawyer.
His client will not stand alone in court. Haurus' companion is tried for complicity and concealment. Two counterfeiters are also sent to court. As were two "big" clients, the Marseillais and a private detective from Seine-et-Marne.