A multinational operation also involving Europol, UK and US authorities has put a halt to illegal trade valued at over £125 million. DarkMarket, the world s largest illegal marketplace on the dark web, has been taken offline in an international operation involving Germany, Australia, Denmark, Moldova, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
Europol supported the takedown with specialist operational analysis and coordinated the cross-border collaborative effort of the countries involved.
At the time of its closure, DarkMarket had almost half a million users and more than 2,400 vendors selling a broad range of illicit merchandise. Among the goods advertised for sale were stolen credit card details, illegal drugs, counterfeit money, anonymous SIM cards, and malware.
20 DarkMarket servers seized and probed in international raids Share
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Europol cops have taken down dark-web souk DarkMarket, after arresting an Australian citizen living in Germany who they claim was operating the world s biggest online bazaar of its kind.
DarkMarket had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 sellers, an official announcement from Europol on Tuesday said, calling it the “world’s largest largest illegal marketplace on the dark web.”
The site sold a range of illegal goods including drugs, counterfeit money and credit cards, cloned SIM cards, and malware.
Europol said it has records of 320,000 transactions and that the site processed 4,650 Bitcoin and 12,800 Monero, worth about €140m ($170m) at today s prices. The police have yet to name the person they accuse of running the marketplace, saying only that it is an Australian citizen who was apprehended near the German-Danish border over the weekend.
over 320 000 transactions;
more than 4 650 bitcoin and 12 800 monero transferred.
At the current rate, this corresponds to a sum of more than €140 million. The vendors on the marketplace mainly traded all kinds of drugs and sold counterfeit money, stolen or counterfeit credit card details, anonymous SIM cards and malware.
Germany takes the lead
The Central Criminal Investigation Department in the German city of Oldenburg arrested an Australian citizen who is the alleged operator of DarkMarket near the German-Danish border over the weekend. The investigation, which was led by the cybercrime unit of the Koblenz Public Prosecutor’s Office, allowed officers to locate and close the marketplace, switch off the servers and seize the criminal infrastructure – more than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine supported by the German Federal Criminal Police office (BKA). The stored data will give investigators new leads to further investigate moderators, sellers, and buyers.