Spanish Cyber-Squat Kasa de la Muntanya Raided

Reports are circling the internet that the “Cyber-Squat” Kasa de la Muntanya, which once hosted the Darkwallet team, has been raided. Darkwallet is an unSYSTEM project embracing bitcoin as a web technology. “Darkwallet is a community of projects developing a wallet with privacy, scalability and integrity. We see Bitcoin fundamentally as a new tool of business and trade in the free economy, more than a mere payments innovation. The Darkwallet is our first step into a series of products that will touch upon tools for markets, governance and organisation. These are tools we need for our own communities, where we aim to create self-managed spaces.” – Darkwallet

Online reports state that, 400 Mossos d’Esquadra, the police force of Catalonia, were deployed at a quarter past five in the morning of Tuesday 16th December to carry out raids in both Madrid and Barcelona. The police have not confirmed who, or how many people, have been arrested, neither have they disclosed the location of these arrests. According to online reports up to 15 people have have been detained.

Operacion Pandora raided; Kasa de la Montanya, the Libertarian Ateneo de Sant Andreu, the Anarchist Ateneo de Poble Sec and several private homes, as they allegedly have connections with a series of ATM bombings. Since the raids began, people have taken to the streets protesting the arrests. Reports indicate 3000 people in Barcelona, 2000 in Madrid and over 1500 in regional parts of Spain are showing their public support for those detained.

The agents have confiscated mobile phones, laptops computer devices and documentation for their investigation. In one online forum, a poster comments in reference to Darkwallet, “Good thing they used multisig for donations..” – CoinCadence

Concerns were raised in the Bitcoin community as as to whether Amir Taaki, Lead Developer of Darkwallet and his team were present during the raid. A developer from Darkwallet confirmed that Amir Taaki and the Darkwallet team spent 6 months at Kasa de la Muntanya between February and July this year. They have since moved to another development centre in London, but have spoken out regarding the raids:

“We send all our support to Kasa de la Muntanya and the nice peoples there. Thanks to people like those (and many others) the world changes a bit to the better.. they deserve all the support they can get. Thanks a lot to everyone for the support and for caring!” Darkwallet team, the unSYSTEM Forum

Operacion Pandora is the result of a public security law first introduced in 2013. Passed by the lower Parliament of Spain, critics refer to it as the “Ley Mordaza,” which translates to “Gag Law.” Under this new legislation, those who disobey or prevent authorities from carrying out convictions will be fined up to EUR 30,000, and organizers of unpermitted demonstrations can receive fines of up to EUR 600,000. Amnesty International has criticised a measure in the new law which stipulates fines of up to EUR 30,000 for using images of police without authorisation.