Europol seizes cryptocurrency darknet platform worth $ 267 million

As a result of a large-scale international operation, EU and US law enforcement agencies have dismantled one of the most famous darknet exchanges, Archetyp Market, which specialized in the illegal sale of drugs and brought its organizers more than $ 267 million in revenue.

The key suspect, a 30-year-old German citizen, was detained in Barcelona on June 11. Investigators believe that he was in charge of the Archetyp Market, which was used to trade fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis. The operation was carried out in cooperation with law enforcement agencies from Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Romania under the coordination of the German Federal Criminal Office (BKA) and the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The main currency on the platform was Monero, a cryptocurrency with a high level of privacy, which made it difficult to track transactions. During the searches in Spain, Germany, and Romania, police seized assets worth $ 8.3 million, including smartphones, computers, digital media, and large quantities of drugs and cash. In the Netherlands, law enforcement officers neutralized Archetyp Market’s server infrastructure located in a local data center and completely disabled access to the platform.

In addition to the main suspect, seven other people were detained in Germany and Sweden, and searches were conducted at 20 different locations. The seized evidence includes 47 smartphones, 45 computers, and a large number of other digital devices that may help in the investigation.

Archetyp Market served more than 612,000 users and had 3,200 merchants with 17,000 active listings. Law enforcement officials expect that the collected array of digital evidence will allow them to identify new suspects and expose other related criminal networks on the darknet. The operation is another step in the international fight against cybercrime and online drug trafficking.