German law enforcement has liquidated one of the world’s largest darknet trading platforms DarkMarket, and disconnected it from the servers.
Until its liquidation, DarkMarket was a robust online platform boasting 320,000 transactions where 2,400 criminal vendors thrived in selling banned substances, counterfeit currency, stolen user data, fake credit card information, anonymous SIM cards, and malware to 500, 000 users.
According to a Russian news website, the mastermind of DarkMarket, a 34-year-old Australian national, was apprehended by German authorities near the Danish border in an operation that sought to dismantle the site that was reportedly supporting the exchange of funds totaling 140 million euros.
Although the suspect is said to have refused to testify in court, German police went ahead to unravel more than 20 servers that were used by the trading platform. It turns out that the servers were hosted in Ukraine and Moldova – the authorities believe that the seized data will go a long way in enabling their successful investigation into the extent and scale of the illicit operation.
The operation was conducted in partnership with law enforcement agencies from Australia, Great Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, USA, Ukraine and Moldova.
