World’s Largest Illegal Dark Web Marketplace, DarkMarket, Taken down in joint International Operation

An International joint Operation involving Denmark, Germany, Australia, Ukraine, Moldova, the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, and the DEA, FBI, and IRS of the USA this month took down the world’s largest illegal dark web marketplace, DarkMarket. The operation was in conjunction with Europol who provided specialist operational analysis and coordinated the cross-border collaborative effort of the countries involved.

Before its takedown, DarkMarket was accessible only to internet users with specialized identity-cloaking tools and it had about 2,400 vendors selling a wide range of illicit merchandise and roughly 500,000 users. The dark web marketplace had recorded over 320,000 transactions which generated more than 4,650 bitcoin and 12,800 monero in transactions: this estimates to the sum of about €140 million.   

The German Central Criminal Investigation Department in the city of Oldenburg was credited with taking the lead in the operation with the arrest of a 34-year-old Australian citizen who is the alleged operator of DarkMarket near the German-Danish border. The arrest led to the shutdown of more than 20 servers located in Ukraine and Moldova. 

In a statement released by Europol, it was stated: “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.”

According to German authorities, the joint operation was months in the works and was part of a larger investigation that saw the takedown of website hosting provider CyberBunker in southwestern Germany in September 2019.

References

• https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/darkmarket-worlds-largest-illegal-dark-web-marketplace-taken-down