International police join forces to dismantle the world's largest dark web drug market! The illegal Monero trading network has been uprooted
Recently, international law enforcement agencies have shut down one of the world's largest dark web drug markets, known as 'Archetyp Market', as a result of a coordinated operation involving police from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and other countries.
On June 11, Spanish police arrested a 30-year-old German national, the main suspect, in Barcelona. He is suspected of operating the platform and selling drugs on a large scale, including amphetamines, marijuana, fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.
According to investigators, the platform conducted transactions using Monero (XMR), with a total sales volume estimated at 250 million euros (approximately 267 million USD), and had over 612,000 customer accounts and 3,200 suppliers. The transactions on the site relied entirely on Monero (XMR), which is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency commonly used for dark web transactions.
After successfully arresting the suspect in Barcelona, the police expanded their investigation further. They conducted thorough searches of the suspect's apartment in Barcelona and his properties in Hannover, Germany, and Bucharest, Romania. In this series of actions, the police seized a total of 8 mobile phones, 4 computers, 34 storage devices, and assets worth approximately 7.8 million euros (about 8.3 million USD).
Meanwhile, the Dutch National Police took critical action at a data center in the Netherlands, disabling the server infrastructure of the market, effectively cutting off access globally and completely paralyzing this massive dark web market.
Additionally, Germany and Sweden also took further coordinated actions against individuals and suppliers associated with the market. Law enforcement searched another 20 properties and arrested seven suspects in Sweden. They seized 47 mobile phones, 45 computers, a large quantity of drugs, and illegal proceeds.
As the investigation deepens, the large amount of data seized is expected to provide new leads. Under German law, the main suspect faces charges of operating a large-scale drug trafficking organization and, if convicted, will face severe punishment.
In summary, law enforcement agencies from multiple countries jointly dismantled the world's largest dark web drug market, severing the illegal trading chain of Monero, highlighting the deterrent effect of transnational law enforcement, and ringing alarm bells for cryptocurrency regulation and dark web governance.
