Germany dismantles the world’s largest illegal market in ‘Darknet’ – Spain’s News

The Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) today announced the dismantling and disconnection of the largest known black market within the so-called “Darknet”, the dark Internet network in which illegal transactions with weapons or drugs, among other things, are carried out. The so-called “Hydra Market”, a Russian platform that had been operating since at least 2015, had some 17 million customers and more than 19,000 merchant and seller accounts. The BKA noted that “after extensive investigations” the server infrastructure has been intervened and “thus closed the market.”

The German agents highlighted that this market invoiced a turnover of 1,230 million euros in 2020 alone. Experts from the BKA and the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office in charge of the case stressed that it is “the illegal market with the highest turnover in the world.” The investigators explained that “Hydra Market” was used primarily to trade drugs, stolen data and false documentation, as well as criminal service businesses, specific orders to certain criminals.

The BKA highlighted as significant a so-called “Bitcoin Bank Mixer” within the market with which financial transactions were carried out using cryptocurrencies in a hidden manner, which made criminal investigations by authorities around the world extremely difficult. With the intervention of their servers this Tuesday, the German agents also seized 543 bitcoins with a current market value of 23 million euros. On the website of the platform, the agents placed an announcement that communicated the seizure of it.

The BKA pointed out that the investigations into the case began in 2021 and that the Central Office for the Fight against Internet Crime (ZIT) within the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Criminal Investigation Office have participated in them, but also several US agencies. Despite the seizure of the servers and the closure of the platform, the researchers do not currently know the identity of its managers and administrators.