A German-led police operation in coordination with authorities in other countries have taken down the ‘world’s largest’ darknet marketplace.
According to a report in The Guardian, German authorities nabbed the alleged Australian operator accused of running the site called DarkMarket, used to facilitate the sale of drugs, stolen credit card data and malware. The marketplace boasted 500,000 users, 2,400 vendors and 320,000 transactions worldwide.
A 34-year-old Australian national was arrested last week near the German and Danish border after “months-long international law enforcement operation.” At the same time, authorities seized 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine.
In addition, Europe’s Europol had a “coordinating role” in the takedown, along with supporting roles by the FBI, DEA and police authorities from Australia, Britain, Denmark, Switzerland, Ukraine and Moldova.