German police announced Friday that they had arrested several people and searched more than a hundred homes to dismantle the largest German-speaking online sales site specializing in crime. The operation targeted “Crimemarket”, a sort of shopping platform for criminals, accessible both freely on the web and via the clandestine Internet “Darknet”, according to a press release from the police of Düsseldorf (west).
The site, whose address was confiscated by the authorities, offered the sale of “drugs and weapons, but also services such as money laundering, cybercrime instructions to sponsored acts”, a she detailed. The number of registered users of this platform stands at more than 180,000, she added. The operation carried out Thursday evening in Germany and outside the country is the result of an investigation carried out for several years by a special unit of the German cyber police.
Narcotics also seized
It targeted not only the people who managed the site but also the users, sellers and buyers on the platform, investigators said. In total, the latter carried out 102 searches in the country, the largest number of interventions being concentrated in the west, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Three people were arrested in this Land, including the main suspect, aged 23, and three other people were arrested in other regions.
The police seized mobile phones, IT devices and data carriers. She also seized narcotics, including a kilogram of marijuana and various ecstasy tablets. Investigators also found nearly 600,000 euros in total in cash and movable property. “Crimemarket” was intended as a forum dedicated to discussion, exchange and commerce relating to fraudulent activities.
If visiting the open access site was not illegal, concealment techniques were used for the sale of illegal products or services, such as VPN or the Tor network, which make it difficult to identify the location and real identity of users.