German prosecutors in Koblenz and Oldenburg said they shut down the “largest illegal marketplace on the Darknet” on Tuesday. The 34-year-old man, an Australian National, who was believed to operate the site was arrested near the Germany-Denmark border. Drugs, counterfeit money, stolen credit card data, SIM cards, and malware were traded on the site. The site had half a million users and cryptocurrencies of up to $170 million were transacted on the site. The server was turned off on Monday.
The probe that found DarkMarket took a months-long international law enforcement operation. The FBI, DEA narcotics law enforcement and IRS all contributed. In addition, Australia, Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, Ukraine and Moldova police forces acted in the operation as well. DarkMarket had more than 2,400 vendors when it was closed.
Read more: ‘Largest illegal darknet marketplace’ DarkMarket taken offline
