Police in Germany and Spain have moved to shut down a new version of the Crimenetwork dark web marketplace.
Spanish investigators arrested a 35-year-old German citizen at his home in Mallorca last week after liaising with the Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor's Office – Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) – and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in Germany.
The individual is said to have built an entirely new online infrastructure to host Crimenetwork just days after its previous version was shut down and its administrator arrested in December 2024.
The original site had been operating since 2012 and built up a following of over 100,000 users and more than 100 sellers, mainly from German-speaking countries.
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The 35-year-old German national arrested in Mallorca is suspected of operating criminal trading platforms on the internet and trafficking in narcotics.
The relaunched Crimenetwork facilitated a brisk trade in stolen data, drugs, and forged documents – among other illegal goods and services – and had garnered over 22,000 users and more than 100 vendors, according to the BKA.
A Multimillion-Euro Operation
The new Crimenetwork generated revenue of more than €3.6m ($4.24m), with the operator receiving a commission for each sale and sellers paying monthly fees for advertising and sales licenses, the BKA said.
During the operation, police seized €194,000v ($228,400) in assets connected to the site, as well as user and transaction data which they intend to mine for intelligence which could lead to further arrests. Most customers are said to live in German-speaking countries.
“The relaunch of Crimenetwork has failed, and another administrator will have to answer for his actions in a German court,” said Carsten Meywirth, director of the BKA and head of its Cybercrime Department. “We are also consistently enforcing applicable law in the darknet together with our national and international partners. Cybercrime doesn't pay.”
The administrator of the original Crimenetwork was sentenced in March to seven years and 10 months in prison, with the court ordering the possession of over €10m.
The BKA claimed that the site enabled sales of at least 1000 BTC ($96.9m) and over 20,000 XMR ($4m) between 2018-24.
The BKA released a tongue-in-cheek video in German detailing its efforts.
The German police authorities also collaborated the Moldovan National Investigation Inspectorate Center for Combating Cybercrimes.