Europol Shuts Down Two Major Illegal ‘Dark Web’ Trading Platforms

Europol announced the shut down of two prolific dark web
marketplaces—Wall Street Market and Silkkitie (also
known as Valhalla)—in simultaneous global operations against
underground websites for trading drugs, stolen credit card numbers,
malicious software, and other illegal goods.

Police in western Germany has also arrested three men who were
allegedly running Wall Street Market, the world’s second largest
dark marketplace with more than a million users and 5,400
vendors.

Besides this, the operation involving Europol^[1], Dutch
police^[2] and the FBI^[3] also led to the arrests
of two major suppliers of narcotics via the Wall Street Market site
in Los Angeles, the United States.

According to the Europol, the police officers seized the
computers used to run the illegal market place, along with more
than €550 000 (£472,000 or $621,000) in cash, more than €1 Million
in Bitcoin and Monero cryptocurrencies, expensive cars, and other
evidence.

In a press release published today, Europol also revealed that
Finnish authorities shut down the Silkkitie marketplace earlier
this year, which was operating since 2013 on The Onion Router (Tor)
network and was “one of the oldest and internationally best-known
Tor trade sites.”
Based on the findings of the investigation, Finnish Customs also
seized a significant amount of Bitcoin, following the shut down of
Silkkitie, known as the Valhalla Marketplace.

According to the press release, over 63,000 sales offers were
placed on the Wall Street Market most recently, and over 1.1
million customer accounts and more than 5,400 sellers were
registered. The site’s administrators charged 2 to 6% commission on
sales.

The Department of justice today charged the three men arrested
in Germany with two felony counts—conspiracy to launder monetary
instruments and distribution, and conspiracy to distribute
controlled substances.

According to the DoJ, the Wall Street Market administrators
allegedly conducted an “exit scam” last month when they took all of
the virtual currency held in marketplace—believed by investigators
to be approximately $11 million—and then transferred it to their
own accounts.

The operation was conducted in cooperation with German Federal
Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt), the Dutch National Police
(Politie), Europol, Eurojust, and various US government agencies,
including Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, Internal Revenue
Service, Homeland Security, US Postal Inspection Service, and the
US Department of Justice.