The Dark Web cyber bunker set up by “The Penguin” buddy George Mitchell was “amateur”

The Dark Web cyber bunker set up by an associate of drug boss George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell was a botched and amateurish operation.

Evidence in Germany – at the regional court in Trier – says that, despite the high-tech systems, the boss was often drunk and careless.

One of the accused computer scientists said the security of customer data was not taken very seriously – and the court heard that the hard drives of the shut down servers that were supposed to be destroyed were crammed into the German bunker.

Investigators found passwords in an Excel spreadsheet they were able to use to access data after the underground complex was raided in 2019.

An intern who started working in the bunker weeks before the raid said the boss was drunk every night and none of his references or qualifications had been checked.

The prosecution accused eight defendants of complicity in around 250,000 crimes, including drug trafficking worth millions, data theft, computer attacks, counterfeiting of currency and arms sales.

They are also accused of hosting illegal websites and thus aiding in crimes committed by their customers by failing to verify if their servers are being used for criminal purposes.

The cyber bunker was located in a former NATO underground complex.

Herman Johan Xennt, and a director, two directors, two of Xennt’s sons, Xyonn and Yennoah, and an accountant are in court.

He has learned that bunker manager Michael R. is prepared to make a partial confession.

He previously recounted how Mitchell was involved in a project called “Underground” which brought in a lot of “black money”. In 2017, when the bunker was under surveillance and Mitchell’s phones were bugged by German police, there was a dispute between the drug boss and Xennt.

Mitchell asked Xennt to repay the € 700,000 he gave him to buy a bunker in Goes, the Netherlands, according to Michael R.

He also said he negotiated a deal between them in which The Penguin was paid € 30,000 and obtained an app and information about the project.

Michael R described Mitchell, who used Mr. Green’s name, as a forgetful alcoholic with heart problems and a bad knee, and little understanding of technology despite his efforts to develop his own communication system.

The Cyberbunker trial is expected to last until December and this is the first time in Germany that suspected criminal facilitators have been tried and not just criminal gangs.