[German]Law enforcement agencies are increasingly successful in uncovering illegal activities on the darknet and also in stopping them. The German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) in Wiesbaden has now struck another blow against cybercriminals. Investigators were able to dismantle the "Hydra Market", which operates illegally on the Darknet, and seize the infrastructure or shut down the marketplace. This is according to a report from the BKA dated April 5, 2022.
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What was Hydra Market?
Hydra Market was an illegal marketplace on the darknet. The Russian-language darknet platform had been accessible via the Tor network since at least 2015. The main focus of the platform was the trade in illegal narcotics. In addition, data spied out or stolen worldwide, forged documents and digital services were offered for profit via the platform.
Approximately 17 million customer accounts and over 19,000 seller accounts were registered on the marketplace. According to estimates by the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), "Hydra Market" was probably the illegal marketplace with the highest turnover worldwide. Its sales amounted to at least 1.23 billion euros in 2020 alone. In particular, the "Bitcoin Bank Mixer" provided by the platform, a service for concealing digital transactions, made crypto investigations immensely difficult for law enforcement agencies.
Hydra Market server seized
he General Public Prosecutor's Office Frankfurt am Main – Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) – and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) seized today, Tuesday, April 5, 2022, the server infrastructure of the illegal darknet platform "Hydra Market" located in Germany and thus closed this. 543 Bitcoins were seized, currently worth the equivalent of approximately EUR 23 million, which are attributed to the marketplace.
According to a joint statement (German) by ZIT and the BKA, the seizures carried out today were preceded by extensive investigations that have been conducted by the BKA and ZIT since August 2021 and in which several US authorities were involved. The investigation pending at the ZIT in this regard is directed against the previously unknown operators and administrators of the aforementioned platform.
Among other things, this group of persons is suspected of operating criminal trading platforms on the Internet on a commercial basis, providing or granting an opportunity for the unauthorized acquisition or unauthorized sale of narcotics on a commercial basis, and money laundering on a commercial basis. The following seizure banner was published today on the website of the marketplace.
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