Catherine De Bolle, Europol’s executive director, said the results this week demonstrate “illegal activity on the dark web is not as anonymous as criminals may think.” Two covert websites used to sell drugs, stolen data and malware have been shut down following arrests and raids conducted as part of a global police operation. Hydra Market, whose users were primarily in Russian-speaking countries, last year accounted for what is estimated to have been 80% of all darknet market-related cryptocurrency transactions, according to the Justice Department. Data seized in the action will be used in the ongoing investigations against platform sellers and users, potentially uncovering their identities and organizing arrests. The agency said it showed international cooperation was key to tackling online crime, with the intelligence used to investigate the suspects based on evidence provided by German authorities.
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And while DarkMarket was illegal, the investigation into CyberBunker did find some of those more disturbing items. The BKA and ZIT coordinated with Dutch authorities during their investigation, specifically the Zeeland-West-Brabant Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Zeeland-West-Brabant Police. Servers used to support the Crimenetwork marketplace were also taken down, according to the BKA.
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The websites were accessible using the Tor Browser, a gateway to the so-called dark web. The agency said further investigations against criminal sellers and users of the platform are presently ongoing. Hydra Market enabled vendors of a wide range of drugs — including heroin, other opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD — to connect with customers of those narcotics, who could rate sellers on a five-star system, according to U.S. prosecutors. According to an ABC News report, police said the closure of DarkMarket follows a 2019 investigation into a server located in a former NATO bunker discovered in southwestern Germany. It was found to have been hosting other illegal sites, including DarkMarket at one stage. The illegal site had processed more than 320,000 transactions, had close to 500,000 users and over 2,400 vendors.
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{The cyber-policing breakthrough is the latest win for German police, following their disruption in March of Crimemarket, which was previously described as the country’s largest illegal dark web marketplace. Europol said Archetyp had been one of the few darknet markets that allowed the sale of fentanyl and other highly potent synthetic opioids. BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Police across Europe have dismantled a dark web drug marketplace known as ‘Archetyp Market’, the pan-European Europol police body said on Monday, which added that U.S. authorities had also assisted them in the operation.}
