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before he did, the whole operation would collapse before it began. As an accomplished carder who by this stage had finally achieved the status of 'dollar millionaire' many times over, Golubov would have bought himself the protection of local law-enforcement agencies. Among his own, he was invincible.

Dovzhenko Street lies two miles south of Odessa's city centre. The streets are lined with trees and it is counted among the city's more fashionable addresses. Golubov was living at his grandmother's apart- ment, so when Popov and his team pitched up they were surprised to find a thick steel door blocking their access. After moving into position, Popov signalled to his colleagues. 'Open up! Police,' they shouted while banging on the immovable door. Greeted by silence, they strained to hear anything behind the steel barrier - one of them thought they detected some shuffling, but despite their efforts, the door remained firmly barred.

As Popov was wondering whether to call in some heavy equipment, the sharp smell of burning paper hit their nostrils. 'Christ!' he thought, 'he's started destroying evidence!' Popov lost no time in alerting the emergency services, and before long a fire engine was on its way. With the heat intensifying, the firemen smashed open a hole in the apartment wall and started to spray foam through it. When it looked as if his grandma's apartment was about to be flooded by industrial chemicals, Golubov finally decided the game was up and at last opened the door.

It was a bizarre scene. Not only did Popov discover Golubov's records on fire, but the hacker was feeding computer disks through a Raskat. Had Golubov merely deleted files from his various computers, this would have presented little challenge to anyone with rudimentary skills in computer forensics seeking to reconstruct them. You can burn paper - it is much harder to burn computer files. But the Russian-designed Raskat could deploy powerful electromagnetic waves in order to oblit- erate data completely. Golubov had been caught red-handed, and Popov accompanied him to Kiev where he was incarcerated.

Vega and Golubov were now both under lock and key (as were several other vital members of CarderPlanet's family). Both strenuously denied that they are Boa and Script. Neither has yet been convicted of a crime - indeed, the former has spent seven years in American jails without ever having gone to full trial, raising serious questions about the efficacy of the US criminal justice system.

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