German student arrested for running darknet marketplace

A 22-year-old student has been arrested in Germany for allegedly running a darknet marketplace used for drug trafficking.

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announced the arrest last week, saying the person was arrested from Lower Bavaria.

This individual, whose identity has not been revealed, is suspected of being the admin of the third version of ‘Deutschland im Deep Web’ (DiDW), one of the largest darknet marketplaces in Germany.

The arrest took place last week, on the 25th October.

A public prosecutor from the Central Office for Cybercrime Bavaria (ZCB) assisted BKA in searching two residential homes as part of the operation. As part of the search the authorities seized several pieces of evidence, including mobile phones, computers, and data devices.

Months of undercover investigations took place prior to the search, in order to identify and ultimately apprehend the individuals who were operating anonymously on the dark web.

The original version of DiDW appeared on the Tor network in 2013. At that time, it was launched as a discussion forum for anonymisation and IT security.

However, the website was also used for the sale of illicit goods including narcotics and weapons. To shield members from fake listings, it implemented an escrow mechanism for payments. As a result, DiDW became a popular darknet market disguised as a forum.

In 2016, an 18-year-old purchased a weapon and 300 rounds of ammunition via the website before going on a shooting spree in a Munich mall, killing at least nine people.

German police closed the marketplace soon after the incident, in 2017 and arrested its operator, who was later given a seven-year jail term.

A new version of DiDW that sold drugs, firearms, and other illicit commodities debuted in 2018. Its motto “No control, everything allowed” implied that the new owners were no longer worried about covering up unlawful activity on the website.

This second iteration came to an abrupt end in 2019, followed by the emergence of an updated third version serving as the official successor of the darknet market brand.

German police closed down this iteration – which had around 16,000 registered users and 72 active traders – in March this year.

A banner displayed on the website says, ‘The platform and the criminal content have been seized by the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime.’

According to Article 127 of Germany’s Criminal Code, ‘The suspect now faces criminal charges for running an illegal trading platform, a crime that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail.’

The DiDW seizure comes months after another darkweb market takedown in April, when BKA announced that it took down servers of the world’s largest illegal darknet marketplace, Hydra, in a coordinated operation with US agencies. The authorities seized 543 Bitcoins worth €23 million (£20 million) as a result.

Hydra, which was founded in 2015, was a criminal marketplace where predominantly Russian users purchased and sold unlawful goods and services. The website also helped to  launder some of the $7 billion in Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex exchange in 2016, according to blockchain analysis company Elliptic.