Hello again AlphaBay newsletter subscribers! When the capture of Alexandre Cazes, the kingpin of the world's biggest dark-web drug market, was first publicly announced in July of 2017, one of the few facts revealed about the takedown was that it began with a car crashing into the front gate of Cazes' Bangkok home, part of a sting operation designed to distract him as other agents moved in for the arrest. From the moment I read that bare detail, I knew that the story of Cazes' capture would be a pulse-pounding scene, if only I could someday fully report it all out. Over the years that followed, as I day-dreamed about telling the epic story of Operation Bayonet, the story I sketched out in my mind always began from the perspective of the undercover cop behind the wheel of that car. |
Only in December of 2021, more than a year into the process of writing my book Tracers in the Dark, did I finally manage to meet with that undercover agent, who goes by the nickname Nueng. A few hours into a two-day stretch of interviews with agents in the office of the Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau, Nueng shared her inner monologue from that day in July 2017—down to the words of the Buddhist prayer she muttered under her breath—and I knew that the trip to Bangkok had been worth it, Covid quarantine and all. For this installment of the newsletter, I want to share photos and video stills that I obtained in my reporting on that Bangkok bust, so that readers can both see the scene for themselves and also understand what I based the story's descriptions on. Before I share any spoilers, however, I'd suggest you go read Part 5. |
Now that you're back, here's a photo I took of Colonel Pisal Erb-Arb, the Thai team leader, showing me the placement of the seven undercover agents on Cazes' block on the morning of July 5, 2017: |
Here, again, is the still from a surveillance video showing Nueng crashing the Toyota Camry into Cazes's front gate to lure him out of his home, away from his computer: |
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A moment later, Cazes' wife comes out and Nueng, in the white shirt, pleads with her to ask her husband to come down so she can pay for the damage. If you look closely, you can also see that one blind on the second floor of the house is now open: |
The agents and prosecutors watching this live feed knew then that Cazes had in fact stepped away from his computer. |
Here's the moment when Cazes emerges, shoeless and shirtless: |
And when he realizes that it's all a ruse and spins around, desperate to get back to his laptop: |
Here's what the agent M saw when he broke free of the scrum of agents around Cazes and sprinted up the stairs to find that laptop, still open and unlocked: |
Note the $50,000 gaming machine, which Cazes had nicknamed the Blue Pearl, on the floor to the right of the desk. |
Meanwhile, Cazes was pinned down and arrested outside: |
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And finally, here's the cell that Cazes was kept in, on the first floor of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau headquarters… |
…where, tragically, he was found dead less than a week later. Read Part 5 of our series on AlphaBay at the link below, and check out my book Tracers in the Dark, of which it's a part, here. |
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