Authorities shut down World’s Largest Darkweb Market Place.
Europol on Tuesday said it shut down DarkMarket, the world’s largest online marketplace for illicit goods, as part of an international operation involving Germany, Australia, Denmark, Moldova, Ukraine, the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA), and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The illegal internet market specialized in the sales of drugs, counterfeit money, stolen or forged credit card information, anonymous SIM cards, and off-the-shelf malware.
In addition, the months-long intelligence operation also resulted in the arrest of a 34-year-old Australian national near the German-Danish border over the weekend, who is alleged to be the mastermind behind DarkMarket.
According to The Guardian, DarkMarket came to light in the course of a major investigation against the web hosting service CyberBunker, which served as the web host for The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks in the past.
The takedown of DarkMarket also saw law enforcement seizing the criminal infrastructure, including more than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine, that was used to conduct the operations.
“The stored data will give investigators new leads to further investigate moderators, sellers, and buyers,” Europol said.
Leave a Reply