Prosecutors in Frankfurt described the «Hydra darknet market» platform as the world’s biggest illegal darknet market marketplace.They said they seized its server infrastructure in Germany.
The shutdown was the result of investigations underway since August, in which U.S. authorities participated.
The U.S. Treasury Department also announced Tuesday it was sanctioning Hydra as well as a virtual currency exchange, Garantex, that operates out of Russia.The department said both entities have been used to help finance the activities of ransomware gangs.
The Hydra platform had been active at least since 2015, German prosecutors said. They added that, dark darknet market link as well as illegal drugs, forged documents, intercepted data and «digital services» were offered for sale.They said that it had about 17 million registered customer accounts and more than 19,000 registered sellers.
Prosecutors said the platform had sales of at least 1.23 billion euros in 2020.
Cybercrime research firm Elliptic said Hydra has facilitated over $5 billion in bitcoin transactions since 2015, darknet market markets links receiving a boost after the closure of a key competitor in 2017.
«Listings on the site also included forged documents, data (such as credit card information) and digital services,» Elliptic said.»Products were advertised for sale in a number of countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.»
La entrada Germany shuts down darknet platform specializing in drugs se publicó primero en JugoTerapia.]]>Prosecutors in Frankfurt described the «Hydra dark web market links» platform as the world’s biggest illegal darknet market marketplace.They said they seized its server infrastructure in Germany.
The shutdown was the result of investigations underway since August, in which U.S. authorities participated.
The U.S. Treasury Department also announced Tuesday it was sanctioning Hydra as well as a virtual currency exchange, Garantex, that operates out of Russia.The department said both entities have been used to help finance the activities of ransomware gangs.
The Hydra platform had been active at least since 2015, German prosecutors said. They added that, as well as illegal drugs, forged documents, onion dark website intercepted data and «digital services» were offered for sale.They said that it had about 17 million registered customer accounts and more than 19,000 registered sellers.
Prosecutors said the platform had sales of at least 1.23 billion euros in 2020.
Cybercrime research firm Elliptic said Hydra has facilitated over $5 billion in bitcoin transactions since 2015, receiving a boost after the closure of a key competitor dark market in 2017.
«Listings on the site also included forged documents, data (such as credit card information) and digital services,» Elliptic said.»Products were advertised for sale in a number of countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.»
A government shutdown of dark web marketplaces AlphaBay and Hansa has merchants and consumers looking for a new home.
Authorities , the largest online marketplace for illegal goods, on July 4, and took down Hansa, the third largest, on Thursday. The sites, where people could buy drugs, guns and child pornography, had flourished since 2014, when a predecessor, Silk Road, was shut down.
Fueled by Tor browsers and cryptocurrencies that offer anonymity, AlphaBay, Hansa and other sites avoided much government detection, allowing in the wake of Silk Road’s demise. AlphaBay replaced as the biggest, darkmarket url growing to be 10 times larger.
When one dark market falls, buyers and sellers just move on to the next one.
The migration of buyers and sellers comes as authorities around the world crack down on digital marketplaces that cater to growing numbers of shadowy sales. at the time it was taken offline. By comparison, darknet market markets onion Silk Road had just 14,000 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation closed it four years ago.
Many of the sites . A recent study by the University of Manchester and think tank Rand Europe found 811 arms-related listings on . The researchers found nearly 60% of the weapons came from the US and most of the sales were headed to Europe. Worryingly, one gun bought on a cryptomarket was used in a .
FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe acknowledged shutting down such markets was like playing whack-a-mole. His agency would likely have to in the future, he said.
«Critics will say as we shutter one site, another will emerge,» McCabe said at a press conference. «But that is the nature of criminal work. It never goes away, you have to constantly keep at it, and you have to use every tool in your toolbox.»
One such tool: using a captured marketplace as a trap.
After the fall of AlphaBay, Dutch police said they saw traffic heading to Hansa spike eight-fold. That was something the cops were anticipating.
Dutch police had full control of Hansa on June 20, but waited a month before shutting it down hoping to catch the new users in marketplace chaos.
«We could identify and disrupt the regular criminal activity that was happening on Hansa market but also sweep up all of those new users that were displaced from AlphaBay and looking for a new trading platform for their criminal activities,» Rob Wainwright, the Europol director, said at the press conference.
Dutch police now have the usernames, passwords and IP addresses of thousands of Hansa users, and are tracking them down.
An underground in flux
Dream Market seemed to be the next move for dark web vendors, but some question how reliable it is.
McAfee
The ploy has dark web darknet market users on edge. Many are concerned about whether the next available platform will be compromised as well. That has them questioning Dream Market, a marketplace that’s been in business since 2013 and benefitted from the shutdown of rivals.
«After the closure of the AlphaBay darknet market, many vendors expressed that they were moving their operations to Hansa and Dream darknet market,» Liv Rowley, an analyst at Flashpoint, said. «The shuttering of Hansa now leaves Dream the only remaining major option.»
Rowley noticed chatter on forums and subreddits pointing to Dream darknet market as the next AlphaBay, but people are wary after the Dutch police ploy.
Reddit users on several threads have expressed concerns the website has been compromised in a similar fashion. A user who speculated Hansa had been compromised in a thread posted returned on Thursday to warn that .
«This is a warning you will want to heed,» the user, who goes by , posted. «They are waiting to gather as many refugees from AB & Hansa as they can and then drop the hammer.»
Other marketplaces, like Tochka and Valhalla, could also rise in the vacuum AlphaBay and Hansa have left. Some smaller dark web markets are even appealing to those lost in AlphaBay’s shake-up.
Security company was offering vendors from AlphaBay a discount if they moved to their platform.
«The entire illegal underground is in flux right now,» Flashpoint’s Rowley said.
It’ll be quiet on the dark web until people can find a reliable marketplace again, but eventually they will, said Emily Wilson, the director of analysis at Terbium Labs.
She called the busts a «sizable hiccup» but not «an irreversible blow.»
It’s unclear who’ll emerge from the fallout. But the FBI estimates that more than 40,000 merchants are looking for a place to sell. And there are more than 200,000 customers looking for places to buy stuff they can’t get on Amazon.
With AlphaBay, the Amazon of illegal goods, now shut down, the market is fragmenting. If you want malware, there’s a darknet market for that on the dark web. The same for guns and for drugs. So business will go on, albeit less conveniently.
«For now, there are plenty of smaller and more specialized markets for vendors and buyers to continue trading,» Wilson said.
First published July 21, 8 a.m. ET
Update, 5:04 p.m.: Adds background on scope of the markets, weapons sales.
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The sanctions against Russia-Based Hydra and darknet market currency exchange Garantex, darkmarket published on the Treasury Department’s website, «send a message today to criminals that you cannot hide on the darknet market or their forums, and you cannot hide in Russia or anywhere else in the world,» U.S.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub Editing by Chris Reese)
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US guns make up as much as 60 percent of the weapons on sale on the dark web, new research has found.
Weapons, drugs and stolen identities are readily available on the dark web, a . To investigate where guns, ammunition and guides to their use come from, the UK’s University of Manchester and dark markets think tank Rand Europe — or cryptomarkets — and found 811 listings relevant to the study, published Wednesday.
Most weapons were from the USA, dark web darknet markets onion address where , and darknet market most sales were destined for Europe. A gun bought from the dark web was used in a .
«The dark markets web is both an enabler for the trade of illegal weapons already on the black darknet market and a potential source of diversion for weapons legally owned», darknet market list said Giacomo Persi Paoli, the report’s lead author. «The ability for criminals and terrorists, as well as vulnerable or fixated individuals, to make virtually anonymous purchases is perhaps the most dangerous aspect.»
On Thursday, US and European law enforcement agencies the , two of the three largest dark web markets.
US guns make up as much as 60 percent of the weapons on sale on the dark web, new research has found.
Weapons, drugs and stolen identities are readily available on the dark web, a . To investigate where guns, ammunition and darknet market links guides to their use come from, dark web sites the UK’s University of Manchester and think tank Rand Europe — or darknet market darknet markets links onion address cryptomarkets — and found 811 listings relevant to the study, Darknet Markets published Wednesday.
Most weapons were from the USA, where , and most sales were destined for Europe. A gun bought from the dark web was used in a .
«The dark web is both an enabler for the trade of illegal weapons already on the black darknet market and a potential source of diversion for weapons legally owned», said Giacomo Persi Paoli, the report’s lead author. «The ability for criminals and terrorists, as well as vulnerable or fixated individuals, to make virtually anonymous purchases is perhaps the most dangerous aspect.»
On Thursday, US and European law enforcement agencies the , two of the three largest dark market link web best darknet markets.
An Australian man was arrested on Monday accused of running a $220million illegal darkweb marketplace – called the biggest in the world and ‘ for criminals’ – after ha was tracked following the bunker’s discovery.
The joint investigation by Australian Federal Police, Scotland Yard, the , Europol, and German authorities, among others, arrested the man, 34, as he allegedly tried flee across the Danish border into .
The man, known only as Julian K, is the alleged operator of DarkMarket and has been detained by German investigators.
The 5,000sq m former NATO bunker located in south-western Germany (pictured) was built with 31inch thick concrete walls and was converted into a data facility called CyberBunker to host darknet market websites after being bought in 2012
A night-vision aerial view of the aboveground portion of the bunker containing a gatehouse, office, helipad and entrance building (pictured) which descends another four levels below the surface
A screenshot of the illegal website allegedly run by the arrested Australian man and temporarily hosted on CyberBunker which displays drugs for sale (pictured)
German police officers walk through the gate at the perimeter of the former Cold War bunker (pictured) converted into an illegal data centre after it was raided in 2019
DarkMarket was shut down on Monday and its new servers, located in Ukraine and darkmarket 2024 Moldova after relocating from the bunker, were taken off the internet, prosecutors in the city of Koblenz said.
‘Until its closure, DarkMarket was probably the largest marketplace worldwide on the darknet market, with almost 500,000 users and more than 2400 sellers,’ prosecutors said.
More than 320,000 transactions were conducted via the website including the sale of drugs, counterfeit money, stolen or falsified credit cards, anonymous SIM cards and malware.
The transactions were reportedly worth a total of 4,650 bitcoin and 12,800 monero – two cryptocurrencies – for dark web darknet market urls an equivalent sum of more than $221million.
The servers will be forensically examined by authorities to uncover information about the website’s operations and criminal network.
The solid concrete bunker (pictured) was built to withstand a nuclear blast is located in the south-western German town of Traben-Trarbach
Two of the entrances to the disused bunker (pictured) which was raided by police in 2019 after being bought by a private foundation based in Denmark in 2012
The accused man has already fronted a German court and been denied bail – to be transferred to a German prison in the next few days.
He has reportedly refused to speak to investigators or court officials.
German prosecutors said the man was trying to flee Denmark into Germany when arrested and was travelling through Europe either on holiday or conducting business for the illegal website.
They said the investigation around DarkMarket originated after the discovery of the data processing centre run by criminals in the 5,000sqm former unused bunker in south-west Germany.
The discovery of the illegal data centre in the bunker led to the arrest of multiple people accused of being part of a criminal network and being an accessory to hundreds of thousands of illegal transactions.Some went on trial in October (pictured)
The data facility hosted illegal websites, which included DarkMarket temporarily, and was shut down in 2019.
The building, darkmarket constructed by the West-German military, in the mid-1970s descended five-storeys below the surface and was built with 31inch thick concrete walls to withstand a nuclear blast.
A meteorological division of the military used the facility after the Cold War until 2012 to forecast weather patterns where German soldiers were deployed.
The building was sold to a foundation based in Denmark in 2012 after officials could find no other buyers for the vacant facility.
A number of people were arrested after the discovery of the data centre – accused of being part of a criminal network and being accessories to hundreds of thousands of illegal transactions involving prohibited material such as drugs and hacking tools.
Some already went on trial in October.
The darkweb was originally developed for the United States military but has been overrun by criminals because they can conceal their identity on the platform.
Server rows constructed in the bunker which is made of solid concrete and climate controlled (pictured).The data centre was dismantled after the raid and multiple people linked to the centre were put on trial
The deal between Eric Eoin Marques and Justice Department prosecutors is designed to satisfy a judge in Maryland who rejected their original agreement, which called for a prison sentence of 15 to 21 years.
Defense attorneys outlined the new terms in a court filing on Friday.They said a 21-year prison sentence would be «fair and just» for Marques.
Marques’ lawyers also urged U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang to impose a condition of supervised release that would allow Marques to live in Ireland, his home nation, after he completes his prison sentence.
Marques, who was 35 in May, is scheduled to enter his updated plea agreement and be sentenced next week.Chuang isn´t bound by the sentencing recommendation.
During a hearing in May, Chuang described the initial plea agreement as «too flawed» and said he was inclined to give Marques a longer sentence than 15 to 21 years. The judge criticized a provision of the plea deal that wouldn´t give Marques credit for darknet site six years he spent in custody in Ireland while fighting extradition after his 2013 arrest in Dublin. Chuang said he can´t tell the federal Bureau of Prisons to refrain from counting those years when Marques likely is entitled to get credit for that time.
«It´s not going to be 21 minus 6 to 15. That´s not going to happen,» the judge said.
The new plea deal calls for Marques to receive credit for the time served.
Marques, a dual citizen of the U.S.and Ireland, pleaded guilty in February 2020 to creating and operating a web hosting service called «Freedom Hosting» on the darknet market links between 2008 and 2013.
The darknet market is part of the internet but hosted within an encrypted network. It is accessible only through anonymity-providing tools.Marques’ service enabled users to anonymously access millions of illicit images and videos, many depicting the rape and torture of infants and dark market onion darknet market onion toddlers.
Investigators found what appeared to be more than 8.5 million images and videos of child pornography on the Freedom Hosting server, according to a court filing that accompanied Marques´ guilty plea.
Marques was living in Ireland at the time of the offenses.He was extradited to Maryland in March 2019. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to advertise child pornography.
In an April court filing, a prosecutor said a government witness was prepared to testify that investigators had identified Marques as the largest purveyor of child pornography in the world and that he had made approximately $3.6 million in U.S.currency from his servers.
Marques’ lawyers say he made money from his legitimate web-hosting services, not Freedom Hosting.
«Though the contents of many of the websites it hosted were despicable and unlawful, the evidence shows that Freedom Hosting was a free service until just before Mr. Marques´ arrest,» they wrote in Friday’s filing.
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The US Justice Department announced the largest dark web bust it has ever helped carry out, seizing more than 1,100 pounds of drugs from 179 alleged online dealers around the world. The US worked with police in Europe to carry out the investigation, seizing more than $6.5 million in cash and virtual currencies.
Operation DisrupTor — named after the frequently used to access the dark web — was led by police in Germany, along with US law enforcement agencies and Europol.
The majority of the arrests took place in the US with 121 cases, followed by 42 cases in Germany, darknet market markets 2024 eight cases in the Netherlands, darknet markets links four cases in the United Kingdom, three cases in Austria and one case in Sweden. Police said investigations are still ongoing to identify people behind these dark web accounts.
The for hidden parts of the internet that you can’t easily discover through an online darknet market marketplaces have grown in popularity at an alarming rate and allow drug traffickers to openly advertise and take orders from anywhere in the world,» Rosen said. «The dark net invites criminals into our homes and provides unlimited access to illegal commerce.»
Operation DisrupTor used information from another major darknet market raided in April 2019, FBI Director Christopher Wray said. , darkmarket 2024 one of the largest dark web marketplaces online.
Investigators said they’ve tracked down more than 18,000 listed sales to alleged customers in at least 35 states and in several countries around the world. Wray noted that there’s been a spike in opioid-related overdose deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the FBI will continue investigating dark web drug markets.
«Today’s announcement sends a strong message to criminals selling or buying illicit goods on the dark web: the hidden internet is no longer hidden, and your anonymous activity is not anonymous,» Edvardas Sileris, the head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, said in a statement.
NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Chinese cryptocurrency addresses sent more than $2.2 billion worth of digital tokens to addresses tied to illegal activity such as scams and darknet market operations between April 2019 and June 2021, according to a report from blockchain data platform Chainalysis released on Tuesday.
These addresses received $2 billion in cryptocurrency from illicit sources as well, making China a large player in digital-currency related crime, it added.The report analyzes China’s cryptocurrency activity amid government crackdowns.
However, dark market list China’s transaction volume with illicit addresses has fallen drastically over the two-year period in terms of absolute value and relative to other countries, Chainalysis said.The big reason is the absence of large-scale Ponzi schemes such as the 2019 scam involving crypto wallet and exchange PlusToken that originated in China, dark markets 2024 darknet market it noted.
Users and darknet market list customers lost an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion from the PlusToken scam.
The vast majority of China’s illegal fund movements in crypto has been related to scams, although that has declined as well, the Chainalysis report said.
«This is most likely because of both the awareness raised by PlusToken, as well as the crackdowns in the area,» said Gurvais Grigg, dark web market links global public sector chief technology officer at Chainalysis, dark markets 2024 web sites in an email to Reuters.
The report also cited trafficking out of China in fentanyl, a very potent narcotic pain medication prescribed for severe pain or pain after surgery.
Chainalysis described China as the hub of the global fentanyl trade, with many Chinese producers of the drug using cryptocurrency to carry out transactions.
Money laundering is another notable form of crypto-based crime disproportionately carried out in China, Chainalysis said.
Most cryptocurrency-based money laundering involves mainstream digital currency exchanges, often through over-the-counter desks whose businesses are built on top of these platforms.
Chainalysis noted that China appears to be taking action against businesses and individuals facilitating this activity.
It cited Zhao Dong, founder of several Chinese OTC businesses, pleading guilty in May to money laundering charges after being arrested last year.(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Richard Chang)
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