A nine-count indictment was unsealed in the Western District of Tennessee charging six alleged members of a criminal street gang known as Unknown Vice Lords (UVL) – Ghost Mob with… In 2020, he was named alongside his colleagues as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in explanatory reporting. Previously, he worked at the New York Times and volunteered as a first responder for refugees arriving on the shores of Lesvos. A screenshot of the marketplace shared by the DOJ in the statement showed cocaine available for bulk purchase from JoyInc on Drughub, a dark web site. Four Los Angeles County men were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of operating one of the dark web’s biggest drug distribution networks, according to the U.S.
Kazakhstan Busts $224M Darknet Crypto Laundering Ring As RAKS Exchange Collapses
Last year, Germany shut down the servers for the infamous Russian darknet marketplace Hydra and seized around seizing €23 million worth of Bitcoin. International authorities collaborated to shut down one of the largest dark web marketplaces, DarkMarket, in 2021, which led to the arrest of 150 alleged drug vendors. Examples include the sale of high-quality products with low risk for contamination (including lacing and cutting), vendor-tested products, sharing of trip reports, and online discussion of harm reduction practices.
Fraud And Hacking Services
The collapse of RAKS, which saw its operations cease abruptly on September 29-30, 2025, marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing global fight against financial crime leveraging digital assets. According to analysis by TRM Labs’ blockchain intelligence team focused on darknet market ecosystems, Empire Market was one of the largest Western darknet markets in operation during the relevant period. During this period deposits to darknet markets dropped significantly and no new leader emerged as vendors and buyers tended to avoid darknet markers while the dust settled. The defendants then allegedly shipped the drugs throughout the United States via the United States Postal Service.
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This resilience suggests that while busts are a constant reminder of the ongoing challenges, the underlying demand and innovation within the crypto space are strong enough to withstand these disruptions without sustained negative price action. Investigators said the seizure of Archetyp Market followed years of forensic work to trace financial flows, analyze digital evidence and map the platform’s architecture. A seizure notice now appears on the marketplace’s homepage, along with a Cyberpunk-style warning video dramatizing the police operation. Its alleged administrator, a 30-year-old German national who has not yet been named, was cuffed by officers at his apartment in Barcelona, and “measures were taken in Germany and Sweden against one moderator and six of the marketplace’s highest vendors,” officials stated. Archetyp’s takedown might make headlines, but it won’t stop the trade of illicit drugs on the dark web.
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She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. In fact, it is routine for individual’s participating in these dark web communities, par for the course of engaging in the markets. The operation resulted in the seizure of 50.8 million euros ($53.4 million) — in cash and virtual currencies, nearly 1,900 pounds of drugs and 117 firearms in a series of raids in several countries.
Darknet Markets Explained
In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. Persons are also prohibited from causing or conspiring to cause U.S. persons to wittingly or unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions, as well as engaging in conduct that evades U.S. sanctions.
Archetyp Market
The Wall Street Market seizure is not the first or even most devastating law enforcement takeover of a dark web storefront. In 2017, Dutch police took control of Hansa, a booming darknet market, and the FBI shut down AlphaBay, an even larger competitor. While displaced AlphaBay users flocked to Hansa for their fix, Dutch authorities spent weeks logging their activity, including many of their home addresses.
Despite the fact Archetyp had clearly raised the bar on security on the dark web, Operation Deep Sentinel – a collaborative effort between law enforcement agencies in six countries supported by Europol and Eurojust – took down the market. Law enforcement shutdowns are also only one type of disruption that dark web communities face. Dark web market users routinely face voluntary closures (the gradual retirement of a market), exit scams (sudden closures of markets where any money in escrow is taken), or even scheduled maintenance of these markets. What current policing strategies neglect is that dark web markets are not isolated to the storefronts that are the popular target of crackdowns. These are communities stretched across dark and surface web forums which develop shared tutorials and help one another adapt to any new changes.
- Gabriela Silva Ponte has been with CBC Toronto Local News since January 2025, at first in an internship capacity and afterwards as an Editorial Assistant.
- JCODE has worked with every FBI field office in the country to facilitate outreach to households that have purchased individual amounts of opioids from the darknet.
- International law enforcement agencies have shut down one of the longest-running and most prolific drug marketplaces on the dark web, known as Archetyp Market, and arrested its alleged administrator.
- In a press conference Tuesday morning, DEA acting administrator Timothy Shea specifically called out Arden McCann, allegedly known as RCQueen, DRXanax, and other aliases across numerous dark web markets.
We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. Europol said the takedown comes after years of investigation into the platform’s ‘technical architecture’ and the individuals behind it, adding that its findings were achieved by analysing digital forensic evidence. The laptop was set up to use an operating system designed to access the darknet and protect against surveillance. Over the three days of action, more than 300 officers contributed to Deep Sentinel, many of which were involved in property searches across Germany and Sweden. The Register asked the authorities involved for more details on these measures, and they clarified this meant arrests only. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the FBI’s New York and Cincinnati field offices, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S.
The raid on Genesis followed a similar US-led enforcement actions in 2023 against other darknet hacker market places, including Hydra Market and Breach Forums. Europol said in a statement on Monday that between June 11 and 13, 300 officers were deployed to carry out a ‘series of coordinated actions’ across Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden targeting the platform’s administrators, vendors and technical infrastructure. The longest-standing dark web drug market worth £200million has been dismantled following a years-long investigation with its alleged mastermind arrested in Barcelona. In the long term, the RAKS bust is a significant catalyst for further regulatory scrutiny and standardization globally. As legitimate use cases flourish and regulatory clarity emerges, this crackdown on darknet activities will help differentiate the ethical applications of blockchain from its misuse, fostering greater trust from traditional financial institutions and mainstream investors.
Investigators seized assets worth approximately €7.8 million (about $9 million), including luxury vehicles and cryptocurrency. International law enforcement agencies have shut down one of the longest-running and most prolific drug marketplaces on the dark web, known as Archetyp Market, and arrested its alleged administrator. The operation allowed law enforcement to secretly track drug sales and payments made on the marketplace, as well as analyze communications between the market’s operator and vendors. It was through this investigation that law enforcement identified Desnica as the operator of Monopoly Market.
- Monopoly Market has been on the dark web since 2019 and has since served as a hub where criminals can buy and sell drugs, according to CyberScoop.
- During the investigation, law enforcement seized cryptocurrency valued at $75 million at the time of the seizures, as well as cash and precious metals.
- The dark web is a collection of sites that are not indexed by search engines and can only be viewed with specialized web browsers designed to provide privacy and anonymity.
- I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
In the US, the arrests fell under the DOJ’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team, which includes investigators from FBI and the United States Postal Service. J-CODE’s most recent operation, called Sabotor, resulted in 61 arrests announced in March 2019. “It provided us with all the information which led to the identification of those arrested today,” says Europol press officer Claire Georges. “We collated the information and then we sent out what we call intelligence packages to all the concerned countries. Basically it’s information or documents where we say, look, we know this person in your country has done this, you may want to open an investigation.” Georges says also that there are more arrests to come.
