The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

DarkMarket: Investigators shut down one of the largest illegal marketplaces

2021-01-12T11:53:10.522Z


On the DarkMarket, you could buy a lot of forbidden items from drugs to counterfeit money. Now German investigators have arrested the alleged operator. Buyers and sellers are now also in focus.


The State Central Cybercrime Office of the Koblenz Public Prosecutor's Office and the Central Criminal Inspectorate Oldenburg report a blow against illegal online trading: According to their own statements, investigators succeeded on Monday in taking DarkMarket, possibly the world's largest illegal marketplace on the Darknet, offline.

"Drugs of all kinds" were traded on the DarkMarket, they say.

In addition, counterfeit money, stolen or falsified credit card details, anonymous SIM cards and malware were also offered for sale.

The Koblenz Public Prosecutor's Office writes that the DarkMarket had almost 500,000 users and more than 2,400 sellers at the time it was closed.

According to the investigators, the site was “probably the world's largest illegal marketplace on the Darknet”: “In total, at least 320,000 transactions were carried out on the marketplace and more than 4,650 Bitcoin and 12,800 Monero, two of the most popular cryptocurrencies, were moved. “According to the current rate, that corresponds to a sum of more than 140 million euros, it is said - although this estimate should 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

The investigations began months ago, according to the press release from Koblenz.

The police and the public prosecutor's office were supported by numerous domestic and foreign authorities, including the state criminal investigation offices from Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate, but also American authorities and police forces from Australia, Great Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.

Europol was also involved as a coordinator.

The alleged operator of the DarkMarket is said to be a 34-year-old Australian who was arrested near the German-Danish border at the weekend.

He was brought before an investigating judge, but gave no information on the matter.

Now he is in custody.

The DarkMarket is said to have included an »extensive infrastructure with more than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine«, which has now been confiscated.

From the data that were stored on the servers, the investigators hope to obtain information on sellers, buyers and possible employees of the alleged operator of the marketplace.

The police investigations that had their origins in investigations into the so-called cyber bunker in Traben-Trabrach on the Moselle are far from over.

Icon: The mirror

mbö

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-01-12

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-29T22:04:01.292Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.