Police take down the world's biggest darknet market

Suspected kingpin of illegal site arrested in Germany and 20 web servers seized

'Investigators were able to shut down the marketplace and turn off the server.' Getty Images

The “world's largest" darknet market with criminal sales totalling 140 million euros ($170m) has been taken down by a German-led operation that stretched as far as the US and Australia.

DarkMarket, with nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 sellers, was a space in which criminals could sell drugs, stolen credit card data and computer malware, prosecutors in Germany said on Tuesday.

Police arrested the man believed to be behind the operation, an Australian national aged 34.

Police in Oldenburg, northern Germany, "were able to arrest the alleged operator of the suspected world's largest illegal marketplace on the darknet, the DarkMarket", prosecutors said.

"Investigators were able to shut down the marketplace and turn off the server on Monday," they said, calling it the culmination of a months-long international operation.

At least 320,000 transactions were carried out via DarkMarket, with more than 17,450 bitcoin and 12,800 monero – two common cryptocurrencies – changing hands, prosecutors said. At current exchange rates, that represented turnover of 140 million euros.

The Australian believed to be the DarkMarket operator was arrested near the German-Danish border, as more than 20 servers used by the site in Moldova and Ukraine were seized.

"Investigators expect to use the data saved there to launch new probes against the moderators, sellers and buyers of the marketplace," prosecutors said.

The American FBI and police from Australia, Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, Ukraine and Moldova took part in the investigation.

German prosecutors said DarkMarket came to light while investigating the Dutch web-hosting service Cyberbunker, which is suspected of being a haven for cybercrime and spam. German authorities said Cyberbunker hosted DarkMarket for an unspecified time.

The darknet includes websites that can be accessed only with specific software or authorisations, ensuring anonymity for users.

The arrested man appeared before a judge and was placed in pre-trial detention.