An 18-year-old by the name of Joshua Craig Rowling was arrested after driving to a meeting where he thought he was going to contract work where the other party wanted to put out a “hit” on someone. Rowling was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. He is being help in Bergen County Jail in New Jersey on a $1-million-dollar bond.
Rowling was being investigated for using the Dark Net to advertise his services as a hitman. Law enforcement found out that Rowling agreed to fulfil a hit contract in exchange for a firearm, and some money. He drove from his home in Mahwah to a bar called the Mason Jar that was also in Mahwah. He was under the impression he was meeting with a client, but it was actually an undercover police officer.
Rowling was placed under arrest and a search was done of his home and his vehicle. No information was released about exactly what evidence was found, but authorities did say that “numerous items of evidence were gathered.”
Rowling is still being held in the county jail in Bergen County on his $1-million-dollar bail, and is set to appear for his first appearance in Bergen County Central Municipal Court in Hackensack on November 2nd.
While a number of these hitman sites are all over the Dark Net, many of them have been debunked as fake. Few and far between are the real sites; which are often inaccessible to the regular Tor users. Rumors circulate about various sites such as these hired killer advertisements whenever they are found, but as stated earlier, the majority are just for laughs; or if nothing else to simply further the stereotypes the Deep Web often suffers.
Really the only factual news that has been recorded about these Deep Web hitman services is that they are fake; the ones we’ve been able to find at least. There was the one hitman that was hired to snuff out Curtis Green after the Silk Road take down but he wasn’t found on the Dark Net. Many times we see only weapons vendors and chemical and poison vendors and buyers being busted. Rarely do we see headlines related to actual hitmen becoming ensnared in a trap set by law enforcement.