Authorities Shut Down the World’s Largest Dark Web Marketplace and Arrested its Operators
German Federal police with the help of Europol and FBI taken down the world’s second largest illegal online dark web market Wall Street Market and also arrested two of the leading suppliers.
The Wall Street market was the second largest dark web market that has over 1 150 000 and 5 400 vendors. The dark web market is reachable via the Tor network.
Most recently, more than 63 000 sales offers were placed on the online marketplace and the payments handled in the marketplace via cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Monero to maintain anonymity.
The administrators of the marketplace have received commission payments of 2 to 6 percent of the illegal sales value, Europol says in press release.
Three suspects were arrested by German authorities and they have “seized over EUR550 000 in cash, alongside cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Monero in 6-digit amounts, several vehicles and other evidence, such as computers and data storage.”
Another dark web market was shut down by Silkkitie, also known as Valhalla Marketplace shut down earlier this year, some of the vendors from Silkkitie moved to Wall Street Market and German authorities brought their illegal activities to an end.
The Silkkitie is one of the oldest site known for trading illicit goods, it has been active from since 2013. Earlier this year Finnish authorities seized entire web server and contents of the market place.
“These two investigations show the importance of law enforcement cooperation at an international level and demonstrate that illegal activity on the dark web is not as anonymous as criminals may think,” said Europol’s Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle.
“Europol has established a dedicated Dark Web Team to work together with EU partners and law enforcement across the globe to reduce the size of this underground illegal economy.”
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