Status: 05.04.2022 11:05 a.m
German authorities shut down “Hydra Market”. According to the BKA, the platform was the world’s largest illegal marketplace on the Darknet. Drugs, stolen data and forged documents were sold there.
According to their own statements, German investigators have shut down the illegal Darknet marketplace “Hydra Market” with the highest turnover. As reported by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), its server infrastructure was confiscated after “extensive investigations” and the marketplace “thereby closed”. It is unclear who is behind the platform. The public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt am Main is investigating unknown persons.
“Hydra Market” was therefore a Russian-language platform that had been accessible since at least 2015. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, sales of at least 1.23 billion euros were made via the Darknet marketplace in 2020 alone. According to their own experts and the experts from the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office, the platform was “the illegal marketplace with the highest turnover in the world”. There were 17 million customer accounts registered and 19,000 sellers.
Dealing in drugs or stolen data
According to the BKA, “Hydra Market” was primarily used to trade in drugs, stolen data and forged documents. In addition, there were transactions with special criminal services. According to the BKA, a “bitcoin bank mixer” was particularly important, which could be used to conceal digital financial transactions with cryptocurrencies and make criminal investigations by authorities much more difficult.
A banner was posted on the platform’s website informing about the official shutdown in several languages. The investigations have been running since 2021. According to the BKA, US authorities were also involved.
The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that cannot be reached via standard browsers or search engines.