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The State Central Cybercrime Office of the Koblenz Prosecutor General’s Office and the Oldenburg Central Criminal Inspectorate report a coup against illegal online trading: according to their own statements, investigators on Monday managed to remove DarkMarket, possibly the largest illegal market in the world in Darknet, offline.
“Drugs of all kinds” were traded on the DarkMarket, they say. In addition, counterfeit money, stolen or counterfeit credit card details, anonymous SIM cards and malware were also offered for sale.
The Koblenz Prosecutor’s Office writes that at the time of its closure, DarkMarket had almost 500,000 users and more than 2,400 sellers. According to the researchers, the site was “probably the world’s largest illegal market on the Darknet”: “In total, at least 320,000 transactions were made in the market and more than 4,650 Bitcoin and 12,800 Monero were moved, two of the most popular cryptocurrencies. “According to the current rate, that corresponds to a sum of more than 140 million euros, it is said, although this estimate must take into account that a Bitcoin, for example, was not always worth as much as in recent weeks.
A 34-year-old Australian is considered to be the operator
Investigations began months ago, according to Koblenz’s press release. The police and prosecution services were supported by numerous national and foreign authorities, including the state criminal investigation offices of Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate, but also US authorities and police forces from Australia, Great Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. Europol also participated as coordinator.
The alleged DarkMarket operator is said to be a 34-year-old Australian who was arrested near the German-Danish border over the weekend. He was brought before an investigating judge, but gave no information about it. Now he is arrested.
DarkMarket is said to have included a »extensive infrastructure with more than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine«, which has now been confiscated. From the data that was stored on the servers, the investigators hope to obtain information about sellers, buyers and possible employees of the alleged market operator. The police investigations, which had their origins in the investigations into the so-called cyber bunker at Traben-Trabrach in Moselle, are far from over.
