The German police have concluded what they claim to be the largest illegal dark web marketplace in the country and arrested a suspected manager of the site.
Researchers from the Frankfurt am most important public prosecutor-central office for combating internet crime (sitting) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) arrested on Monday, together with seizures of “high-quality vehicles”, evidence and € 1m ($ 1.1 million) in Crypto-assets.
Servers that were used to support the Crimenetwork market place were also removed, according to the BKA.
Crimenetwork enabled buyers and sellers to trade stolen data, drugs, forged documents and other illegal goods and services, the BKA said. It has been active since 2012 and built another of more than 100,000 users and more than 100 sellers, mainly from German -speaking countries.
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As is the case with most dark web market places, buyers used cryptocurrency to pay for these goods and services. The BKA claimed that the site made the sale of at least 1000 BTC ($ 96.9 million) and more than 20,000 XMR ($ 4 million) possible between 2018-24, with the operators of the site on the 1-5% commission received on any sale plus monthly costs paid by sellers.
The 29-year-old arrested on Monday is accused of acting as a technical manager of Crimenetwork and is responsible for operating a criminal trading platform and acting in drugs.
The BKA and is coordinated with Dutch authorities during their research, in particular the office of the Zeeland-West-Brabant Officer of Justice and the Zeeland-West-Brabant Police.
They are currently investigating user and transaction data obtained from the platform.
German police on a role
The breakthrough of cyber questions is the last victory for the German police, after their disruption in March of Crimemarket, which was previously described as the largest illegal dark web market in the country.
A few months earlier, in December 2023, the BKA announced and the Takedown or Kingdom Market is on.
More recently, in September 2024, the BKA announced and the dismantling of dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges that they accused of making money wax and other violations.