[German]Ppartial success of the investigation by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT). Their investigators have succeeded in shutting down the illegal marketplace "Kingdom Market" on the Darknet. However, the operators have probably not yet been caught – but for customers of this marketplace, the "trembling" may begin when swuat team show up at the door.
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Illegal Kingdom Market
The "Kingdom Market" is an illegal marketplace that has existed since at least March 2021 and is only accessible via the Tor network and the Invisible Internet Project (I2P) on the darknet. The English-language darknet platform was used to trade non-legal goods. Its main focus was the trade in illegal narcotics.
In addition, malware, criminal services and forged documents were advertised profitably via the platform. Most recently, over 42,000 products were offered on the marketplace, including around 3,600 products from Germany. Tens of thousands of customer accounts and several hundred seller accounts were registered on the marketplace.
Users of the darknet marketplace used the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero and Zcash for payment. The operators collected three percent as a commission payment for all sales on the platform. It seems to have been a profitable business.
Kingdom Market server seized
In an internationally coordinated operation, the Public Prosecutor General's Office in Frankfurt am Main – Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) – and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) have seized the server infrastructure of the illegal darknet marketplace "Kingdom Market", which is spread across several countries, and thus shut it down. The corresponding measures began on 16.12.2023, as reported here.
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The above seizure banner can now be found on the Tor website of the service. The operators of the "Kingdom Market" are suspected of operating a criminal trading platform on the internet and of illicit trafficking in narcotics. The BKA and ZIT cooperated closely with law enforcement authorities from the USA, Switzerland, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in the investigation.
The investigators celebrate this as another success in the fight against organized cybercrime and write that this is a result of international coordination of law enforcement authorities and innovative investigation strategies. The evaluation of the seized server infrastructure and the investigations to identify those responsible are ongoing. The BKA and ZIT investigators are not yet aware of anyone responsible. Let's see what else becomes known.
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