Several Dutch citizens were unknowingly targeted for murder through a dark web hitman site. In four cases, the killings were even paid for.
The data comes from a hacked source, which RTL Nieuws has shared with the police’s National Investigation and Interventions Unit.
Between 2016 and 2022, murder-for-hire requests were placed on everyday Dutch citizens.
These were people with steady jobs and families, and no ties to organised crime, yet they were targeted in disturbing detail. One client wrote: “I want you to burn him alive and I want him to die.”
In total, seven contracts named Dutch victims, and in four of those, the clients paid between €1,000 and €10,000.
Dutch police are now investigating 14 separate plots. “We’ve already informed several victims, and we’re still investigating the perpetrators,” police spokesperson Thomas Aling tells RTL Nieuws.
The orders were placed on a dark website operating under names like Besa Mafia and Camorra Hitmen. It claimed to offer international contract killings for bitcoin, but it was all fake.
London hacker Chris Monteiro infiltrated the site in 2016 and later gave authorities data on hundreds of fake murder plots. He tells RTL Nieuws the scammers earned more than a million euros.
Although no murders were carried out, the orders remain criminal. “Issuing a murder order is a serious offence,” says Aling. Tracking bitcoin payments is complex, but investigations continue.
Some clients, unaware they’d been scammed, even demanded refunds when their targets weren’t harmed.
So far, just one Dutch client has been convicted. In 2021, Imran M. from The Hague received an eight-year prison sentence for twice trying to have his ex-wife killed.
He sent her photo, address, car details, and offered a bonus if the job was done quickly. His ex-wife and children were forced into hiding for six months.
“The psychological damage is still visible today,” she told the court. “I will never forget the tears of our children as they clung to my parents and sister, so afraid of what was to come.”
It’s a reminder that even fake murder plots can leave very real scars.
