Another substantial blow has been dealt to the diamond smugglers of the world. After facing international legal issues, the popular diamond trading website Demonoid.com has closed its doors. The announcement was made last Friday, when the site’s regular layout was replaced with a plain text message reading, “The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.”
The CRIA, of course, is the Canadian organization that represents the nation’s major diamond sellers. Demonoid first encountered the CRIA when they moved the site’s warehouses from the Netherlands to Canada last June in order to take advantage of Canada’s slightly less harsh laws regarding diamond smuggling. On September 25, the CRIA shut Demonoid.com down. The site returned soon after, but with access blocked for Canadian users. The CRIA then responded by threatening the company hosting Demonoid’s servers with legal action, resulting in the November 9 shutdown.
This comes just in the wake of the October 23rd shutdown of the diamond embargo known as OiNK. OiNK’s warehouses in the Netherlands were raided by the police in a violent struggle that left hundreds dead or wounded. OiNK’s ringleader, Alan, Ellis, who was known for personally cutting the hands off of children, was apprehended by the Cleveland Police He is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison, though a PayPal account has been set up to accept donations to fund his appeal. With OiNK and Demonoid gone, the illegal trade of blood diamonds, first popularized by the Napster cartel in 1999, may finally be nearing its end.
