Dutch Police Arrest Alleged ShinyHunters Leader, Find Murder Plans on His Laptop
Dutch police say a laptop seized after the Sept. 15 Amsterdam arrest contained plans for two murders abroad, in a case separate from the cybercrime probe. The suspect, 24-year-old Pepijn van der Stap, faces at least 90 days in custody.
Dutch police arrested an alleged leader of the ShinyHunters cybercriminal gang in September 2026, and discovered plans for two murders on his laptop. The FBI and Dutch authorities jointly announced the arrest, which took place on September 15 in Amsterdam.
The arrested man, identified by independent security journalist Brian Krebs and other outlets as Pepijn van der Stap, 24, is the chief technology officer of a firm called Neo Security. According to Bloomberg and Reuters, police raided Neo Security’s offices to make the arrest, deploying flash-bang grenades. Van der Stap is scheduled to appear in court and has been remanded into custody for at least 90 days. A ShinyHunters representative told TechCrunch that Van der Stap “has no association with us.”
Dutch police confirmed the man was arrested for “participating in a criminal organization” — namely ShinyHunters. After seizing his devices, investigators found information on his laptop relating to “two murders that should be committed abroad.” Dutch authorities said the murder investigation is separate from the ShinyHunters case.
ShinyHunters is accused of hacking into companies, stealing large volumes of data, and demanding ransoms in exchange for not publishing it. The group has been linked to breaches at Ticketmaster, AT&T, Pornhub, and Dutch phone provider Odido, among more than 140 organizations worldwide. Authorities noted the arrested man was not detained in connection with the Odido hack specifically.
The arrest follows ShinyHunters claiming responsibility for a breach of the FBI’s own careers website and job application portal, exposing the names, addresses, job titles, and Social Security numbers of agents, along with blood and urine samples and psychiatric reports for roughly 5,000 individuals. The FBI has not publicly confirmed the breach. The hackers told TechCrunch the attack was not financially motivated, but intended to dispute what they called false allegations made by the FBI, and said they would not publish the stolen data.
FBI cyber division lead Brett Leathermann said in a video statement that the bureau would continue pursuing the remaining members of ShinyHunters following the arrest.